Offline Mode and Dealing With Steam Servers

[Spellbound]

I'm one highly pissed off individual here....if I had known that one has to go through such crap with these Steam servers ahead of time, I would have never bought this game.

I've been playing all week in offline mode with no troubles. Suddenly this morning, I'm getting a message that I suddenly can't play in offline mode now, because my id and password aren't stored on my computer (funny they have been all week)...and also I can't log onto the Steam server either. I'm on the same computer I've always been on, so I don't get it. I can't post on the Steam site either, because I'm waiting for authentication. I haven't gotten any response from their e-mail system either. So, here I sit -- ready to play my game and I can't. I'm absolutely livid -- and for 2 cents would uninstall the entire crap -- accept I was having such fun playing the game. But this whole server/offline situation sucks royally....if I had only known. :flame:

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

Obviously something has changed on your system which is making it not work, check for spyware/adware/trojan/viruses.

 

[Laivasse]

I'm one highly pissed off individual here....if I had known that one has to go through such crap with these Steam servers ahead of time, I would have never bought this game.

I've been playing all week in offline mode with no troubles. Suddenly this morning, I'm getting a message that I suddenly can't play in offline mode now, because my id and password aren't stored on my computer (funny they have been all week)...and also I can't log onto the Steam server either. I'm on the same computer I've always been on, so I don't get it. I can't post on the Steam site either, because I'm waiting for authentication. I haven't gotten any response from their e-mail system either. So, here I sit -- ready to play my game and I can't. I'm absolutely livid -- and for 2 cents would uninstall the entire crap -- accept I was having such fun playing the game. But this whole server/offline situation sucks royally....if I had only known. :flame:

You say you're waiting for authentication - do you mean a password reminder? That shouldn't take long at all. I did it once just to refresh my memory about my password for safety's sake. I dunno...make sure you're not checking the wrong email addy, that's my only advice in that case.

 

[Spellbound]

No -- authentication for using their boards. I'm a new member. I have also run SpyBot, Ad-Aware and McAfee Virus Scan -- outside of a few GAINS nothing has come up. I'm wondering if my Steam account was hijacked -- I wrote my id and password down when I initially registered the game -- and it asked for it this time when I tried to play the game (never had before) -- I typed it in and now it won't give me access.

 

[Beerdude26]

Yeh, sounds like it's been hijacked... How long ago have you bought the game? You can transfer your serial to another account for free until 90 days after the purchase. Otherwise it will cost $10.

 

[czrsink]

Steam boards authorisation can take up to 48 hours, they don't rush themselves

 

[Spellbound]

Have had the game for about a week or so and have been playing every day. The hijacking issue is the only thing that makes sense. Hijack the account, change the password and the original owner of it is screwed. And what's worse here -- I'm getting NO response from Steam. I'm so angry, I'm just seeing red. I want to just uninstall it and be done with it -- but I'm almost halfway through the game.

I didn't know I could create another account with the same CD key...Where can I do that?

 

[Cons Himself]

does it say password incorrect or osmething when you try and login?

cos if it just says your steam account has been disabled thats usually due to Credit Card Fraud, or warez games etc.

 

[Beerdude26]

I didn't know I could create another account with the same CD key...Where can I do that?

You can't. But you CAN transfer your CD-key to another account.

 

[Spellbound]

No -- didn't say anything about it being disabled. But it asked me for my password for the FIRST time today -- I've been playing the game for over a week and never once did I have to supply that. Once I typed it in -- it just gave me this error:

""Unable to connect to Steam network. "Offline mode" is unavailable because there is no Steam login information stored on this computer."

Then I tried to load it directly from the HalfLife2.exe and got this error:

"SteamStartup() failed: SteamStartup (0xf0x12e0f4) failed with error 108: The local Steam service is not running.)"

I hadn't changed any settings or made any changes to my machine of any kind -- so it makes no sense.

 

[Cons Himself]

connect to the internet and then run steam

 

[Spellbound]

Well, I am on the internet and was when I tried to load it. Are you saying launch Steam from their site? All I saw was a DL for the software.

 

[Cons Himself]

why would steam try to launch offline mode if you are on the internet? have you tried closing the program down from the task manager (ctrl alt del) and then reloading it?

also go to your steam directory and delete the clienregistry.blob file and then reload steam. that usually solves these kind of problems.

 

[Spellbound]

I had 2 clientregistry.blob files that are now gone. I DLd the Steam installer again and am receiving this message:

Unable to start Steam Engine (0x12e890) failed with error 201: Cannot perform this operation while offline."

Obviously, I'm online.

 

[Laivasse]

Some kind of firewall problem? I'm pretty much clutching at straws.

 

[Spellbound]

Every other one of my apps is running fine. Perhaps I should uninstall the old Steam.exe I have and then reinstall the one I just dl'd.

 

[Cons Himself]

you didnt need to reinstall steam, just delete clientreigstry.blob

doh

 

[Spellbound]

That didn't work though. I have now tried to reinstall Steam and it still says "Cannot connect to Steam Network"

...Found the problem -- my firewall is suddenly blocking it for some reason....dammit to hell. Thanks all.

 

[Cons Himself]

firewall tends to block after an update to steam.exe itself. cos the exe changes u know

 

[Spellbound]

Well, what's worse -- it seems when I uninstalled Steam -- all my saved games went with it. I can't find them anywhere and now I'm stuck in the "Updating HL2" that is taking 170 minutes... unbelievable. This has been the day from hell. If I've lost my saves....dammit to hell. Somebody just shoot me now.

 

[Cons Himself]

well u didnt need to uninstall it straight away, so really, im not being harsh here, but youve no one except yourself to blame that you did. theres a cheat to unlock all chapters so dont worry, u wont have to play thru the whole game again.

 

[chu]

I had to reformat my Gaming rig. I for one won't be installing HL2 again. When I Installed it the first time it took about 2 hours before I could even play the game. Falve and that goddamn Steam!

 

[Spellbound]

Cons Himself -- You're right -- I was the idiot. I ended up reinstalling everything and this time called the Tech on the phone -- straightened it out in under 5 minutes. I had everything correct, -- everything was set for offline play -- but instead of starting up Steam to begin with, I was starting up HL2 -- I didn't realize that there is an "online Steam" and an "offline Steam" -- when you play offline, one still needs to go through Steam. Duh...I felt like a fool. All that wasted time, when I could have picked up the phone and had it resolved in 5 minutes! Oh -- and I found someone who had a saved game about 10 steps behind where I was -- so nothing lost there. Thanks very much to everyone for helping me!

 

[HurtMePlenty]

alright first things first your account didnt get hijacked. This problem has been happening to ALOT of people including me. Deleting the clientregistry.blob is supposed to work but it didnt for me either, apparently some other guy made his Steam folder NOT 'Read only' and it worked, i tried it and it didnt work but hey it might for you. there is an alternative you can try and thats backing up all your gcfs(the files that makes your game run) and then deleting and reinstalling Steam. Personally im hoping i dont have to resort to this but i may have to. Anyways hope i was at least a little help and i would like to end off by saying STEAM SUCKS BIG HAIRY BALLS!

 

[Ennui]

Six year old thread dude.