Steam doesn't allow me to play civ (upgrade problem)

[10lire]

Please help!
It's 6 days I'm unable to play G&K because Steam can't reach the content server and can't install necessary upgrade.

I didn't play G&K for a few weeks and I never had problems with game install (from DVD), with Steam upgrade and with game launch.

Now if I try to launch G&K, steam window opens and steam tries to download the upgrade; after a couple of minutes it returns this message:
"It occours an error during the upgrade of Sid Meier's Civilization V (content server not reachable)" (translated from italian by myself).
When I open Steam interface it tries to connect to the store but it returns me this message error:
"Error code:-130
It's impossible to load web page (unknown error)" (translated from italian by myself).

I found some solutions on this forum and the Steam forum but nothing works:
tried to delete 'ClientRegistry.blob' and then re-open Steam; it deosn't work.
tried to delete everything in \Steam folder but Steam.exe, ClientRegistry.blob end \SteamApps; it returns me a message thar says that Steam is unable to upgrade itself (connection problem).
tried to change the regional zone of Steam server; nothing changes.
My driver are upgraded to the latest version.
My connection is ok (100Mbps optical fiber).
My specs are ok:
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 520 @ 2.40GHz
RAM: 4Gb.
Video card: AMD Radeon HD 6500M/5600/5700 Series 2Gb RAM

Really annoyed with Steam; its support is useless, lot of time wasted and it makes me unable to play civ.
Any suggestions, please?

 

[timtofly]

Have you tried playing in offline mode?

 

[10lire]

Ok, sorry, it's not G&K; it's BNW.
tintofly, please, how can I set offline mode?
I went to Steam library -> right click on civ icon -> properties -> upgrades -> select "Don't upgrade automatically this game"; is this that you mean?
However it doesn't work; the upgrade starts anyway (and fails).
It is not even clear if Steam can connect to he web or not; When I open Steam I can log in and I can say game servers; but it is all I can do;
Is there a way to check steam connection and to set it up? I don't mean that "Change download region"..

 

[timtofly]

In the exit steam menu, you can choose to exit into offline mode. Don't close steam by clicking on the x; go into the menu to exit steam. I am not even saying it may work. The game itself may think that it still needs files, especially if you have deleted some of them. Hopefully though it may force itself to just play the way it is.

If your computer is still "online", steam will ask you if you are sure you want to stay in offline mode. Just make sure you stay in offline mode when starting steam again.

 

[10lire]

Ok, thank you!! I can play BNW now! However I'd like to understand why I can't dowload upgrades..

 

[10lire]

I found a list of possible solutions in another thread on this forum. A genius has written: try to unistall and reinstall Civ5 and Steam.
I have uninstalled both; after that I tried to reinstall them with my civ5 DVD but Steam failed to end installation with this message: «Steam needs to be online to update. Please confirm your network connection and try again.»
I disabled Firewall and Antivirus. Reboot. Try again. No success.
Now I am unabled to play civ5 again. I CAN'T INSTALL CIV FROM DVD!!

I try to install Steam on a old (2005) Windows XP client. It works! Installation and upgrade.
Copied steam.msi on my pc with the issue. I have installed Steam but no upgrade. Same connection problem.
Replaced \Steam folder on my pc with the one on the XP client (with Steam fully upgraded). Now I can access Steam screen, but if I try to install Civ5 from DVD or via Steam I have the same connection problem message.

This means there are compatibility issues between Steam and something on my computer.
I played BNV last time on July 31st. The issue comes from something changed on my pc from that date.

Is it possible that the problem on my pc is some Windows 7 upgrade? Any idea if this can be true or totally wrong? Could it be a good idea to try to uninstall Windows updates one by one?

I play civ since 1991. I always loved civ series but now Steam is taking me to a very hard proof!

 

[timtofly]

How is your computer connected to the internet? You could have hardware or driver issues with the network components.

Can you try installing a totally different game (free) or even the demo through steam. If it works just fine, then it is only the Civ5 files that are causing the problem.

 

[10lire]

timtofly, first of all I have to thank you for your continuing support. I spent my weekend losing the head around this problem!

My internet connection works fine (it's my opinion) and it's fast enough (100 Mbps optical fiber); in fact I forgot to say that the XP client is connected to the same router and, as I wrote, yesterday I have installed and upgraded Steam without errors (of course, everything was slow beacuse that PC is old..).
Moreover, My PC is connected with a cable - no wireless - and I have no problems using internet: file downloading, file sharing and such work really fine. This is why I leave out networks issues as reasons for my problem. But I might be wrong...

A little bit history:
June 22nd: I formatted and restored my PC; reinstalled Steam and Civ5/G&K via DVD; everything OK.
July 18th: I Installed BNW via DVD; everything OK.
July 31st: I played BNW for the last time.
August 22nd: Released BNW hotfix patch 1.0.3.70.
September 6th: I launched BNW for the first time from July 31st; Steam tried to install a generic "Civ5 necessary upgrade" (was it the 1.0.3.70 patch?) and gave me that message error; I was unable to play BNW on line.
This means that at least until June 22nd I had no network issues. Maybe later Steam began to have some connection problems, but, if this is true, I haven't noticed that and the issues didn't become evident to me until Steam tried to download the upgrade (Sept. 6th).

I think it's almost certain that there something on my pc. I have to understand what, but I have no tools or ideas for doing this (for example there is no Windows error log when Steam fails to connect).

Can some screenshots be helpful?

Anyway I will try to install another game as you suggest.

 

[timtofly]

It could be that every one trying to, and the patch being pushed out at the same time, that at certain times, there could be too much traffic on the steam servers.

If it just involves BNW, then you may have to go into the directory where the BNW files are stored, both in Windows>documents>games> and steam and manually delete them yourself, and then try upgrading again. It could be that steam is not properly deleting a corrupted file, that it thinks is working ok.

As long as steam has your proper license loading from the CD is useless. Unless you stay offline, or turn off auto update, steam will always attempt to keep the game up-to-date.