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Steam is one of the largest and oldest online gaming stores and libraries around. It came into existence in 2007 and since then has almost universally dominated online gaming, until the rise of Epic games.
However, in recent years, users have been running into a common problem.
See, the only way to get a game that has been bought through Steam to run is by opening Steam itself. If you can’t open Steam, you cannot play the game, and that is a real issue considering you bought the game.
However, there are solutions to this issue, and we will guide you through the best ones to open your Steam account with no issues.
Solution Number 1 – Close Everything To Do With Steam
One of the reasons that Steam probably is not opening is that either all of it or at least a couple of applications are still running in the background.
When your operating system responds to your request to open Steam, it would examine the files and see that something is still running and, in line with algorithm thinking, if one part is running, the rest must be as well. As such, it won’t open Steam and will probably give a message saying: ‘Steam is already running.’
Step
Open The Task Manager
The easiest way to deal with this is by closing everything by going into the task manager. To open the task manager either press control+alt+delete, all at once and click on task manager, or right click and go down to the task manager option.
Step
Find Each Task Linked To Steam
Once there, find each task linked to Steam (they should all be named ‘Steam’ with a few words after and have the Steam logo), click on them individually, then click the end task button. This should allow you to open Steam again.
Solution Number 2 – Restart Your Device
Annoyingly, sometimes you can’t even work out what the problem is just by looking for it. Steam is a gigantic program that has a lot of wasted and fragmented data, and sometimes that data is what’s causing the problem.
This can be linked to Steam by your operating system, but not really be part of the program anymore, and so stays open when everything else is closed.
It could also be cached data that is a part of your computer interfering with Steam, or just some bugs in the operating system itself.
In these instances, there is no point in trying to manually fix the issue, instead you should just restart the entire computer. When we say restart, we mean restart, not shut down or sleep.
Restarting should wipe away all the miscellaneous data and give you a completely clean slate to open Steam with.
Solution Number 3 – Restart Your Internet
If that still hasn’t helped, then it might not be an issue with your PC, but the network you are on itself. See, Steam is an internet based library. Sure, the games you have downloaded are saved on your computer, but updates and patches can only come if you are connected to the internet.
Step
Restart Your Router
If you are having internet connection issues, then Steam will have problems loading. In this case, all you need to do is restart your router.
Shut down your computer and then turn off your internet router, then wait 10 seconds before turning it back on and then turning on your computer. The issues should be fixed now.
If that doesn’t work, then you should do all these steps again, but instead of turning off your router, disconnect it from all its cables entirely. Then wait for 30 seconds and reconnect everything. If all goes to plan, Steam should load fine.
Solution Number 4 – Reinstall Steam
If that doesn’t work, it may be time to face facts and recognize that the version of Steam installed on your computer is to blame. This may be a crushing blow for any intense gamers, but you may have to uninstall and reinstall Steam. This will get rid of all your game’s progress, but Steam should work again.
Conclusion
Playing video games shouldn’t be hard. After a long day of work, most of us just need 30 minutes to an hour to cool off, before dealing with the rest of the day, but when applications act up this can be impossible. However, with the solutions we’ve provided for you today, you should have no issues with your Steam account.
