Hi,

Clicked the Launcher to play F:NV this morning, and it gives me a message saying:

Steam is already running
You may only run one copy of Steam at a time.

So I checked Steam in the system tray, and it tells me that it's updating - 28% complete. I can't load Steam or right-click on it or anything, just have to wait for it to finish.

OK I thought - no biggie. I'll just wait for it to finish.

Except it has been stuck on 30% for about 45 minutes. In the time it took me to go away, prepare breakfast, tidy up and come back it has not shifted a bit.

My connection speed is not the issue. I'm on ultra-fast cable broadband, and downloaded the actual game in only an hour or two.

Effectively I'm locked out of playing F:NV while this update is stuck.

Is anyone else having this issue? Are Steam updates rolled out for everyone at the same time, and has anyone's progress been halted like this?

Did you try ending the process or closing it/ restarting your comp and then then re open steam?

Back when the massive UI update was pushed trough i couldn't download it either, it got stuck just like that. In the end i had to copy an updated Steam's instal from another computer to continue using it.

Before resorting to such drastic methods, try restarting Steam and/or your computer, and try to run Steam in some compatibility modes. Some people who had the UI update stuck got it downloaded in Windows Server compatibility mode IIRC.

I have tried restarting my computer normally without success.

I did a little bit of searching, and some users recommended removing ClientRegistry.blob as a way of fixing it, but you need to close Steam first.

I can't kill Steam in the Task Manager as it doesn't appear there, and when I restart normally it starts downloading in the system tray straight away.

So I restarted in Safe Mode and managed to close Steam that way. I moved ClientRegistry.blob to a different location and then restarted in normal mode.

It appears to have started back at the beginning - now up to 3% but has stayed there for about 5 minutes. Looks like it'll be the same problem.
_

I guess I might have to remove and reinstall Steam. How will this affect my Fallout: New Vegas install? Will I have to download and install it again? What about my saved games - can they be moved and readded?

I should say, although I have been playing a digital Steam copy (with the Caravan add-on pack) I also now have the Amazon Collector's Edition and can install that instead. But will this be compatible with my existing saved games?

Fixed it.

For anyone else who might have this problem, it was related to my firewall. I restarted in Safe Mode with Networking, made sure Steam was closed, and removed Steam from my firewall program permissions. Then exit your security program, load it up again and readd Steam to the list, then restart Steam.

Worked like a charm. Make sure you have Steam closed otherwise you will not be able to actually remove it from firewall permissions.

I'm using Windows 7 64 and McAfee by the way.