Validation time out

[Adabiviak]

My friend is finally going to play Episode 1 and is having the following issue. (This is from an email, edited to remove caustic language):

I can't get episode one to work. It stops at "validating files" and then nothing. All the other steam programs work, including the ones that came with E1, but E1 just wont load.

I've even deleted and reinstalled E1 multiple times, disabled my fire wall, combed user groups, and more!

Do you have any advice?

I told him to launch Steam solo and let it get updated on its own, then to try launching Episode 1 from there to buy some time. I have no reason to suspect that it isn't a legit copy of the game. I'll ask him to check the status of Episode 1 under the "My Games" tab - maybe it isn't fully ready? What might cause the validation to hang?

 

[Dekstar]

How long has he left it running?

He should leave it on overnight to validate

 

[Adabiviak]

...that's the next piece of advice I'll give him.

 

[Adabiviak]

Well, he deleted the local content and downloaded/installed it from Steam. Apparently the install from the disk wouldn't take? Anyway, hopefully this'll help someone else.