steam won't run/half life 2 won't run! Help!

[pazatronic]

After installing steam and half life 2 I am not able to run either of them. When I click on their icons nothing happens, no error message, nothing. Also, the steam icon does not show up in my taskbar at all.

Before purchasing the game, I downloaded the demo and it all ran beautifully on my computer. A few days later I decided to purchase the actual game, but on the same day I started to get error messages: cli.exe error (0xc0000005) when logging into windows (I'm not sure what could have caused the error message other than that I think I downloaded some update for McAfee)

I don't know if the two are related or not. But since that time I was not able to start the demo of half life 2 or steam. I installed the actual retain version that I bought, but neither steam nor half life 2 will start.

I think the problem is either steam itself or some kind of firewall blocking done by McAfee . . . and on a sidenote I am not able to access the website http://www.steampowered.com/ When I go there, I just get a blank screen.

It's just very strange that I install everything and I get no response at all when I click on the icons.

Can anyone help me with this? I hope my explanation of the problem is clear enough. I would really like to play the game that I purchased! Many thanks in advance.

 

[Beerdude26]

cli.exe is a program used by the ATi graphics driver. I get the problem too sometimes, it's nothing to be worried about. But, are you sure you have the latest Catalyst drivers for ATi graphic cards? You can download the latest ones here: Link

Remove the old drivers:
Click on "Start".
Click on "Configuration Screen".
Click on "Software".
Find the "ATI - Software uninstall utility" and uninstall it.
Restart your computer. It's a good idea to put the file with the new drivers somewhere in the upper left corner of the screen, because when you restart, the standard resolution will be 640X480.
Now after you've restarted your computer, install the new drivers and restart again.

Also, make sure you have the latest version of DirectX 9.0C (June Update). (Download it here: Link)

Don't forget to restart your computer after that too

 

[^Ben]

Mcafee is screwing with yah.

Look what sites are blocked in mcafee and you will need to unblock the steam process.

 

[pazatronic]

Thanks a lot beerdude and Ben for your replies. I'm really thinking it has something to do with my firewall. But since I have a system completely in Japanese, my McAfee program is also in Japanese.

I can read Japanese fairly well, and I think I'm going into the right program. I right click on McAfee in my taskbar and select personal firewall. I get a huge list of programs that says they are not blocked. Steam and Half Life 2.exe were on the list of unblocked programs. But the wierd thing is that even if I click on "Block" nothing happens there either . . . it still lists it as unblocked.

I don't know how to check which websites are blocked by McAfee either.

Can either of you give me any other simple ways of checking to see what programs and sites my firewall might be blocking . . . in English>

Oh, and if steam.exe is blocked by my firewall, will it complete disallow me from even running steam or half life?

Thanks again

 

[pazatronic]

guys, I still really need help with this one.

I'm not sure what I need to do to get steam to run on my computer.

I have steam ticked in msconfig, I have it on my exception list in windows firewall, I have it included in the application access in the McAfee firewall list, but no matter what I can't get steam to start!

I don't get any error message when I click on it . . . I just click on steam and nothing happens. I click on other valve programs . . . and nothing happens. I do not get steam loading in my task bar either. I'm stuck.

Funny enough, when I go to http://www.steampowered.com/ I just get a blank page and nothing loads up. All the other pages don't load up either EXCEPT the support pages. Strange . . . I'm trying to get help on the support pages there too, but all the advice offered so far has done no good.

If anyone here can help me with this, I'd really appreciate it. I know half life 2 can run on my computer, I played the demo and it worked just fine. But something happened that blocked steam and valve programs from running.

I want to play half life 2!

 

[pazatronic]

Is there anything I can do to make it run?

It just sucks that I got teased with a great demo of half life 2, went out and bought it, and came home to a game that's unplayable because of a stupid error or some stupid firewall blockage.

Is there any way I can play half life 2 without having to run steam?

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[mastag]

Is there any way I can play half life 2 without having to run steam?

NO

 

[pazatronic]

I've been trying everything for the last two weeks and no matter what I do I still can't get steam to startup. When I click on the desktop link, like before, nothing happens.

I've tried everything from a clean re-install (5 times now), turning off my firewall, adding steam to my accept lists and adding steam as an exception to my windows firewall, deleting the clientregistry.blob, nothing can get it to work.

Has anyone ever had this problem regarding steam before, or does anyone have any advice to help me get steam to run again?

 

[Beerdude26]

Your router or ISP probably blocks the required ports (found here). Try to find out if you have a router and if your ISP keeps those ports available. Use www.portforward.com to help you to forward the required ports if you have a router.