Steam freezes "Searching for updates" - Games

This has happened about 6 times the last couple of months. I open steam, everything goes alright and then BAM. I notice that the Games, Tools and Media tabs are all frozen, I can't join any game or anything and steam says: "Scanning for steam {games, tools, etc} updates...". It fucking pisses me off beyond anything on steam. I've tried waiting about 10 hours for it to unfreeze and nothing. Restarting doesn't do shit. Even if I restart my PC. The only way I know of removing this shit is by reinstalling steam, copying all games to a backup folder and putting everything back in order. As you can obviously guess it's freaking annoying if it happens more than once in a lifetime. :argh: I want to kill something badly right now as it's happening again. Does anyone know the causes / how to fix this issue?

Try the steam beta, or if you are in it opt out of it

Ok. Let me try it. [editline]10:31PM[/editline] Nope. Didn't work. :frown: [editline]10:36PM[/editline] Halp? D: [editline]11:42PM[/editline] Ok, Reinstalling made it once again. I still want to know what the fuck happened. :buddy: [editline]11:47PM[/editline] Nevermind. It just does it again now. Reinstalling made no difference. THANKS FOR THE GREAT REPLIES GUYS REALLY

Ok I managed to fix it by opening the steam installer and selecting repair, after removing both wingui.gcf files inside steamapps. Thanks anyways.

[QUOTE=ZpankR;16246863]THANKS FOR THE GREAT REPLIES GUYS REALLY[/QUOTE] We're not your fucking servants, should've gone to the steam forums if it was that big of a deal.

Whenever I have a Steam problem, I simply delete the "ClientRegistry.blob" file in the program files folder and everything works fine.

It's happening to me too.

Me too. I just tried deleting the ClientRegistry.blob file but still the same problem.

What a swiz! All I want to do is have some fun!

move left 4 dead 2 common.ntf or whatever it is somewhere else and let it update

Still no good :(

Apparently it's just steam getting shit mixed up, if you have l4d2 the searching for updates is apparently the start of the downloading/decryption from what I've seen. Someones made a mistake somewhere.

god damnit...its happening to me too. none of the fixes in this thread work...

Aww hell, I got it too, Eddy, you sure this is the decryption stuff?

Yep, it is. I tried it. I just let it sit there and it said "Steam has finished downloading Left 4 Dead 2"

I have the same problem, anyone have a solution yet?

Hey, I tried moving the left 4 dead 2 common.ncf file, (I just moved it into my username folder) and then restarted steam. Then steam said L4D2 had to be installed, I let it download, and then it finished and it worked again. Note it didn't download the full game, just the ncf file that I moved. Thank you flaming neko

[QUOTE=Flaming Neko;18418102]move left 4 dead 2 common.ntf or whatever it is somewhere else and let it update[/QUOTE] This. It works for me. :dance:

Leaving it allows l4d2 to decrypt.

[QUOTE=Flaming Neko;18418102]move left 4 dead 2 common.ntf or whatever it is somewhere else and let it update[/QUOTE] Cheers, that let me actually get to the games page. Valve really know how to drop the ball on new games!

-snip-

How long should I leave it 'scan' until I should give up on it and move left 4 dead common.ntf ? [editline]04:49PM[/editline] Moving the .ncf works people, I can confirm it. [editline]04:54PM[/editline] "Preparing Left 4 Dead 2 files for install" won't go away :saddowns:

Oh wait. What if you pre-ordered it? would moving the .ncf file mean you wont get the baseball bat?

I really don't care about some bat at this point. It says Decrypting. ________ AWWW SOD IT, More lockups just to tell me it need to re download everything. FINE.. WHATEVER, RE-Downloading. stupid..mother..fu--...

I just waited like an hour and it finished scanning for updates, or decrypting or whatever it did. [QUOTE=DoctorBerry;18422108]I really don't care about some bat at this point. It says Decrypting. ________ AWWW SOD IT, More lockups just to tell me it need to re download everything. FINE.. WHATEVER, RE-Downloading. stupid..mother..fu--...[/QUOTE] Seriously, you want that bat. Maybe it may not be the most powerful and effective melee weapon, but the kick-ass sound it makes, makes it the most entertaining one imo. Haven't tried chain-saw, though that's probably better.

Wow, I have been waiting an hour for this to decrypt, I'm not sure it will stop.

I have this problem too, going to try that ncf fix.

How oblivious are you people? Deleting the ncf makes you re-download the whole game, and then decrypt the files. If you just let it sit at "Searching for updates", It is decrypting your L4D2 games files. Took me around 10 minutes to decrypt it.

Yeah, it's true. I was about to try the ncf, then I read more on other sites, suggesting I leave it. I left it for about 15 mins, and it finished without a problem. I'm ingame now.