Ok for me it was a download manager called Stardock I had installed it rite before NV came out and for some reason steam and stardock did not get along together on the same system.And every time I went to play the onely game I had for steam I would get an error 51.I uninstalled it and dident get a chance to test it out because I went out of town(the game for steam worked fine before this) but when I came back I downloaded NV and went to play I got the same error 51.Now I dont know if you have this DM or any at all other than steam.Did a disk check and for some reason it left a corrupt file that it could not fix.The onely way I could fix this was to uninstall,reformatt HDD,and reinstall my OS.And after all that I still cant/wont play the game because of performance issues,got to wait for the next patch.Hope this helps.


Im a new member I'v never tryed to help any one on this fourm before,i'm actually reciveing help at the moment.The people trying to help the most do not get paid to do what their doing.What I did might not help you at all,and someone who know's the answer for sure might be avoiding this topic because you got so hostile.

Ahh ok, well I don't have Stardock so it can't be that. I have the game on original disc and also completely downloaded from Steam always producing the same launch error. As for reformatting my HDD to play this game that is simply out of the question.
Thanks for taking the time to reply anyway.
Hostile? I hope not, the idea of actually reformating my main computer which is also my work computer simply to play a game is, to me, unthinkable and has no guarantee it would work either.

Just for something to try: Open Steam, go to the Steam menu and choose Settings, In the first tab find the section for beta participation and try opting in to the beta version of the Steam program itself. That should result in the Steam program updating itself when you restart it.

I don't know if it will make any difference, but maybe it might fix whatever the issue is.

I hope you submitted a trouble ticket to Valve as well.

Thanks Showler,
I'll give that ago and yes I have put in a support ticket to Steam but heard nothing back yet!

Unfortunately no joy - thanks for the suggestion anyway!

Some antivirus programs which use heuristic or keep checking running processes can interfere with Steam and cause error 51 (seen that myself, it was fixed after I complained about it to manufacturer of that product).

Well I use Norton 360 but Steam is an allowed program. Looks like having paid for the game the only way I am going to get to play it is use an illegal crack to get around Steam and launch the game independently - Shheeesh!

And Digital Justice,
If I offended you I apologise, I was ranting at Bethesda and Steam not you!

Just googling the error I was able to find this on the Steam forum (also saw the thread you made there)



Saw a response that was similar to this one also saying something about f-secure. So if you are using what it is talking about, your hate toward Bethesda and Steam is misplaced.

Except, of course, he just said he uses Norton 360 and that Steam is an allowed program.

He could try disabling Norton just long enough to confirm if there is a issue, but there should still be an easier to find solution than there seems to be. Even on the Steam forums it seems no one is familiar enough with the error to help out.

This is a longshot, but a friend of mine was having troubles with steam (different game though) recently and it turned out to be related to DRM installed by an UbiSoft game he had installed previously (1 year prior) which left StarForce drivers on his system even after uninstalling the game. What was worse is that he was never even able to play the game since those same drivers cause the game to fail if you are using certain network protocols (unusual ones.)

At the time he did not realize what was causing it or that there was a removal tool. He ended up hearing about it while he was googling about SteamWorks and Steam and the "error 51 message" he was getting. On a lark he ran the removal tool for StarForce (left behind by the old Ubisoft game) and amazingly he had no more problems with steam. He is the only case I've heard of StarForce drivers causing issues with Steam ever and he is using an atypical network setup; he's a Cisco engineer and has a home network that more closely resembles something you would see in a coorperate office.

Anyways, if you've installed games at any point that have used StarForce as their DRM (and are not playing those games at this moment) it might be worth giving a try. Even if it did disable StarForce (not to be confused with Stardock despite the similar sounding names) protected games you can simply reinstall those games and the DRM from them will be reinstalled as well if you'd like. You can check to see if you have these drivers by going into your system properties-> hardware manager and looking under other devices.

Again, this is a longshot but if you're other option is waiting for a patch and keeping your fingers angrily (justifiably so) crossed:

http://www.onlinesecurity-on.com/protect.phtml?c=55

Thanks exoromeo for covering that, been busy.

Another problem I've noticed, is that if your bitfile table is corrupted, or there's an error steam will kick up a error51. I've seen this on a couple of friends machines. Run chkdsk(error-checking) on the drive, especially if you're using NTFS or exfat.

So you said the first one didn't help, but you never mentioned if you were running firewall/anti-virus software in real time. Are you? Have you tried disabling them? This seems to be a cause in a lot of the Google results for error 51.

Wolfpup,
I NEVER conect to the internet without my firewall and anti virus -that is what they are for (unfortunately since Bethesda have decided that this game should only run on Steam I cannot play (jokes: I cannot play because the game will not launch) the game witthout internet connection. You are obviously a big fan of both Bethesda and Steam - have you read any of the other posts on this forum? This game and platform were completely unfit to be released according to the myriad posts complaning on this forum alone, including my own, it is clearly unstable and untested leaving most of the people here with either entirely unsatisfactory and frustrating returns for their money or as in my case no return at all

charybdisjim,
Thanks for that but no StarFoce drivers on my system, unfortunately the patch will be for the game not Steam so won't help me if I can't launch it

I don't suppose you have access to another computer that you could install the game on? Something that isn't important that you can experiment with?

Finding out whether your anti-virus or firewall is interfering would be useful, but I can see why you wouldn't want to risk turning them off. Using another computer with the same anti-virus/firewall might give some useful information.

Showler,
I do have a laptop I could try on but it wouldn't have the specs to run the game and wouldn't be able to point me to whatever is causing the problem with my main puter - Thanks to all for your help and suggestions

I do not run 3rd party firewall (Just the Windows built in one.) or AV software in real time and I am going on 8 years without anything worse than a tracking cookie. If you're that paranoid, put Steam in offline mode and disconnect your internet, and then turn off the firewall/AV software before playing. (Note: Game has to be validated before offline mode works.) I bet this is the cause of your issue, don't let paranoia, and a 3rd party program ruin your game.

I have, and I disagree. Many people have put in 100+ hours. Bugs are to be expected with a game of this size.

Mine seems stable enough (Not perfect, but not "unfit to be released". ) seeing I've put 80+hrs into my character. I hope by "leaving most of the people here" you are referring to those in the issues sections, and not the entire gaming community.

P.S.

I am behind a hardware firewall, aka my router.

OK problem solved, FONV now launching and into the game at last. I can't print the solution here but if anyone else is suffering the same problem (game will consistently not launch in Steam - Error 51) PM me. Thanks to all who tried to help!

As far as I know F-Secure has fixed that problem, so unless you are using ancient version of F-Secure you should not see it anymore.

Well after all that effort and annoyance was there really any point?
Game of the Year? no fukin way
A very basic rewrite of Fallout 3, a few skins changed, different quests, BUT NOTHING NEW! Any map writer could have done better than this
SERIOUSLY DISSAPOINTING BETHESDA / OBSIDIAN - WILL I BE SPENDING MY MONEY WITH YOU AGAIN? SUPRISINGLY - NO.

I have to say that this patch is useless for my system, i am having even more bugs than before. I can't believe that bethesda sells unpolished products like this game..Our society is screwed up..In a supermarket a customer who is in his right to complain,is listened to..What a shame..I will certainly not buy TES 5 , even if it is not the same engine..the problem is you and only you bethesda.Go to hell.