Steam Crashes

[Arcnor]

Hi everybody.

Okay, I've posted this in a couple other places, but I think I've narrowed the problem to software.

Basically, about 50% of the time, when I quit out of a game and am about to quit out of Steam, my PC freezes. Not a BSOD, just a solid colour screen. Locked right up -- only hitting the reset button will unjam the system. I've also had a couple of crashes inside one game (FTL, to be specific). Now, I've gone over my hardware with a fine-tooth comb, and absolutely everything seems to be running happily -- no weird temps, no wacky volts. Full disclosure: I am running an offset-voltage mild OC with SpeedStep and C States enabled, but even turning those off and setting BIOS back to "Optimized Defaults" doesn't make any difference. And if it were a hardware problem, one would expect it to show up when I stress-test, not when I'm trying to leave an application.

There seem to be a fair bit number of complaints about this issue online, but I haven't found much in the way of solutions. I've tried deleting everything but Steam.exe and a couple of other files (plus game files) and letting Steam re-update itself, but that solved nothing.

Could it be a video driver issue? (If it is, some advice about safely deleting and reinstalling drivers would be appreciated.)

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help out!

 

[NeverBackDown]

Try running everything stock then play a game for however long you usually play then try to quit an application.

If that fails in helping alleviating the problem then do a driver update..Many people use driver sweeper but it's unnecessary. I have done it the following way without problems.
First download from Nvidias webiste. After just find the file in downloads section(go to computer and its under favorites) and then drag it to the desktop.

Next:
Close everything out-> go to control panel->click hardware and sound-> Under Devices and printers, click Device manager(must be the admin of the system to open this)-> Go to Display adapters( double click)-> In the dropdown you may see your GPU name, if not then you may see an unknown device. Right Click, Properties, Driver, Uninstall, then done.
Now restart computer.
Now after bootup click on the file and run it. Let it do its thing and after install just restart again.

Seems like a lot but really not. Basically download drivers- go to device manager- display adapter- properties- unistall drivers- restart-install-restart- done. Quick summary

 

[Arcnor]

Drivers Re-installed

Okay, re-installed NVIDIA drivers -- I'll report back on how that works. They were up to date before, but maybe the previous installation was bugged somehow?

As an aside, I should mentioned that I launched FTL outside Steam and played through a whole game, then quit, and had nary a difficulty at all. So I'm thinking Steam may be the ultimate culprit.

 

[NeverBackDown]

When you play a steam game without steam being active it just opens up steam and then allows you to play.
Back up all saves and games and then delete steam entirely off your computer. Then re-install. After back up all your stuff and should run normal.

 

[barnsley]

This might sound a bit odd but maybe try a custom skin for steam?

 

[Arcnor]

Hmm, seems like my crashing problems have disappeared since I re-installed those drivers. Haven't popped into Steam yet, but FTL doesn't crash anymore, either in game or when quitting. I guess it was a driver issue.

I did turn off the NVIDIA audio drivers in Device Manager, as well -- I figured there might be a conflict there with ASUS' Realtek stuff. Either way, it seemed like a good idea, and everything seems to be running smooth now. I'll keep everybody updated. Thanks for all the suggestions, guys.

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Damn. I was hoping the driver re-install did the trick, but apparently not -- just got another blank screen on my way out of Steam. That must be the problem -- I've been mucking around playing FTL for most of the past day and a half and had absolutely no problems at all (launching the game outside of Steam, that is).

I'll try a complete Steam re-install, and hopefully that'll do it. But if it doesn't, does anyone have any other suggestions as to what the problem might be?

 

[NeverBackDown]

I would reinstall steam first. Might bring up more clues to what exactly the problem is.

Also if you launch the game from inside steam do you still crash and what not?

 

[Arcnor]

Well, I just did a complete (and I mean complete) erase and re-install of Steam (including games, but I only had the one in the Steam library, so re-downloading it wasn't too much of a hassle) and that seems to have done the trick. No crashes or strange hard freezes so far. I still don't know what the problem was, but I hope I never see it again. Thanks for all the help, guys.

As an aside, yes, only one game; I'm just getting started. See, I'm a console 'tard who's decided to sit out the Next Big Console Generation as a member of the godlike PC gaming master race.

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Well, damn.

Steam did it again. Quit out of Space Hulk, was about to quit out of Steam and... blank. Hard reset required.

I may be zeroing in on the problem, though. It seems if I use Steam in offline mode, everything's cool. Maybe it's a network connection problem? Any ideas?

UPDATE: The problem seems to originate with having Steam Community enabled in the game. Disable that, and everything seems kosher (although this is something of an intermittent problem, so it may just be playing possum with me). Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[Snortan]

Have you checked the Event Viewer too see if any errors pop up?
Also try opting in/out of Steam Beta.

 

[Arcnor]

The only relevant events from approximately the time Steam blanks the screen involve Windows saying that it's been shut down improperly -- which it has, since I have to hit the reset button.

As for the Beta issue, I never opted-in, so you're saying I should do so and then immediately opt-out again?

Additionally, the problem might be related to amount of time spend in-game. The critical number seems to be somewhere around half an hour or so. I've seen other forum posts talking about something called a "memory leak." Any chance this could be the problem? If so, what steps can I take to solve it?

 

[Snortan]

Try to opt in the beta, maybe they released some kind of fix for another issue which fixes yours too.

 

[Arcnor]

Valve is NO Help

Well, I just sat around waiting to see if Valve had any brilliant ideas to help solve my problem, but all I got from them was a form email with some generic troubleshooting tips. I tried a couple, like including Steam in my antivirus exemptions (I'm going to to try disabling my antivirus -- I use Kaspersky -- next), but nothing's worked. Most of the rest of their suggestions have to do with network compatibility -- could that be the culprit?

Right now I'm temporarily restricted to wifi while I wire a few bits around the house, but I can't see how a slow or goofy network connection would cause my PC to just freeze up on exiting Steam.

Seriously, SOS everybody. I can't figure this out, and it's getting annoying.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Reinstall windows?

 

[Mark3Max]

Arcnor , do you experience any other network problems besides steam ?

 

[Arcnor]

Nope, no network problems (aside from the fact that it's slow, but it's wifi until I get my wiring completed, so I'm not expecting miracles). No dropped connections, no problems websurfing, no issues connecting to other machines on my LAN. Nothing. Just Steam. Just when I quit. Then... blank screen.

It is JUST STEAM that's not working. And I can't figure out why.

 

[Arcnor]

By George, I've Got It!

Hi everybody.

Just wanted to give an update. I finally found the relevant entry in Windows Event Viewer that related to my issue. It was a display warning that read "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered." Didn't tell me much, but at least it was a place to start digging, right? Of course, once I started researching this problem, I found out that it's not a new issue (it's several years old, and apparently NVidia aren't doing much to solve it), and there are about a thousand suggested fixes for it.

I think I've found mine, it's reasonably simple, and thankfully, it doesn't appear to be hardware related, so I don't have to worry about messing with components. The fix that seems to be working for me is to change my power plan under "Power Options" in the Control Panels from "Balanced" to "High Performance." I had it set to balanced because I wanted to take advantage of my offset voltage OC by letting my CPU downclock when I'm just messing around in my web browser or whatever. Apparently this is the source of my issue. Cranking up the power again solved it.

It's a little clunky, but all I really have to do is change the power setting depending on what I'm about to do. I wish NVidia would address the problem, but if they haven't yet, they probably aren't going to.

Also, I probably owe Valve an apology for being so annoyed with them all this time.