Problem with Steam

[Lord Zambia]

Hi,

I havent used steam since i installed DOW2 last year, before realising that my laptop cant run it Now for some reason, steam wont run. It said "Cannot connect to the steam network because no details are stored on this computer" or something. I want to buy a game on steam (i cant find it anywhere else that isnt in america)

So i reinstalled steam. That worked kinda - but now it wont start because "You must be connected to the internet to launch steam" when i am connected. Can somebody help me out?

Thanks in advance

Lord Zambia

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Did you make sure to clean off everything when you uninstalled it?

 

[Lord Zambia]

Im fairly sure. I tried uninstalling DOW but it didnt work because steam didnt work so i just deleted the Steam folder, then launched DOW and uninstalled it. then i reinstalled dawn of war, and it got to the bit where it downloaded steam and then it tried to launch steam. Then it came up with the message "You must be connected to the internet to start steam" which was comical because i was online talking on msn at the time. I tried restarting the computer multiple times but it still does the same thing...

Should i try uninstalling and reinstalling again?

 

[candle86]

yes delete the whole thing, then download steam from steampowered.com let it download and install then redownload DOW2

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Also make sure that it is truly gone. There may be some registry settings or AppData left from a botched install.

In the future, also try deleting ClientRegistry.blob which is located in the steam install folder. It should force Steam to recreate client settings.

 

[candle86]

Steam will recreate its registry settings lol. Just redownload and reinstall and stay away from your registry unless you know what your doing

 

[Genocidicbunny]

ClientRegistry.blob is not a windows registry file. Its an internal config file used by steam. Most of the issues with the program can be fixed by deleting it and having Steam recreate it.

 

[candle86]

you said registry setting suggesting someone should go into the registry to look, which is usally bad advice

 

[Genocidicbunny]

No, unless you're incompetent, its good advice. If there are registry settings left, then they will cause problems and you will end up with more of a headache than it is worth.

 

[candle86]

except when you reinstall steam it recreates all registry entries plain and simple, it wont reuse the old ones it overwrites them, valve themselves dont even mention digging in the registry for any reason, steam is built this way. No novice user ever needs to be told go delete this in the registry. Im a trained tech, and even I dont play in the registry unless I know excatly what im doing in there and what im looking for its common sense.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Its not Steam I would be worried about messing up registry settings, its Windows itself. SPeaking from experience, I have seen messed up Steam registry settings that werent playing nicely and did not get cleaned on uninstall. If a program is refusing to uninstall properly, making sure that all AppData is gone is the first thing you should do, and then that all registry references to it are gone as well.

The Steam installer may also leave registry entries that would not be caught by the uninstaller which can cause some major problems on installation. It just makes sense to check that there are no stray entries.

 

[candle86]

then use a cleaning program, there are plenty of free ones that also arnt going to mess anything up. Unless your a trainer tech you have no bussiness telling anyone what to do inside there registry, because they can brick there OS.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

I'm sorry, I hate being a grammar nazi, but its *aren't , *trained and *their. Hard to take you and your supposed training as a tech when you have trouble spelling.

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Anyways, let's assume I am a trained tech. I may not have the certs since that isn't what I want to spend my time doing, but I do have on the job and personal experience.

 

[candle86]

I am a tech, not an english teacher

 

[LightFang]

I am a tech, not an english teacher

Surely you should know that proper communication is nice. Especially if you're in tech, since it lets your customers know exactly what you're doing to that black magic box of theirs.

 

[candle86]

yes and i communicate with words not on a peice of paper, there recipt is printed by a computer and its very basic in what it tells them, system clean up, optimization or upgrade lol, if its an upgrade we also list the part or parts they bought. Thats it. The notes we use for the machines to list stages are really simple as well, like very basic in the manner of reinstalling XP, or Clean up done ect. I dont write down crap for a client, I will tell them verbally what needs to happen.

 

[Lord Zambia]

Thanks for the help anyway guys. I tried a fresh install, and then realized my active armour firewall was blocking it (the exception was only added to the windows firewall i have, as i have 2 firewalls)

Thanks though

Zambia

 

[candle86]

turn off one of the firewalls, you should never run with 2 firewalls