Windows 7: Steam freezing comp

I've never actually used Steam. Does it download, or just stream the games?

Download.

Steam is not buggy, doesn’t use many resources, and doesn't "crash" quite often. Steam is a game manager that obviously manages your Steam based games, as well as some third party games should you choose to install them. The app also allows you to purchase games on-line through its "Steam Store"

If you do not have a Steam based game you don’t need Steam….

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, quite a few games require you to run them through Steam – Example: Skyrim, Fallout New Vegas and a host of other games. This is a decision the game developer makes as piracy is a huge concern.

At any rate I've been using Steam since it first hit the streets with Half-Life 2 around 2004 and have never had an issue with it per say. However you can have issues with games.... but that is mostly on the developer’s side, and not Steam. If you do have Steam issues, it's usually connection or account issues, not games. The only games Steam, or I should say Valve, which owns Steam, owns is the Half-Life series to include Team Fortress and it's many iterations, Portal, and Left for Dead.

What IS buggy about Steam is their horrendous tech and billing support, but that’s another story for another time. The actual game platform is pretty solid…. So solid that EA decided to enter the fray with their own version… Origin.

As to the OP’s issue either check your connection settings, or check that the actual game isn’t too much for your system – system requirements of the game itself.

You can read more about steam here - Steam, The Ultimate Online Game Platform

My two cents

You say that as if I don't use Steam at all. I've been using it for many years, and although I do love Steam, it does crash and freeze quite a bit. Simply browsing through my game catalog in grid view causes it to pause and stutter a bit sometimes. Entering a key to activate sometimes crashes Steam. Ect, ect. Plus, offline mode is very flaky.

I did not say it uses many resources, where did you get that from?

In all my years of using Steam (since it's inception) I never ever once had it "crash'" while using it. Games on the other hand do crash, ex: Skyrim. BUT that is a game issue, NOT a Steam issue.

Steam is mearly a game manager and has nothing to to with the actual game... Steam does not make games. Developers use it as a delivery platform for their games...including Valve.

Bottom line is this: just because a game crashes under Steam does not make it a Steam issue.

Though I mention that, I never quoted you as saying it. In short, no, you didn't say that, I just mentioned it anyway,

Peace

I'm sorry, but I don't understand where you are getting this from?

I did not say anything about games crashing, I did not mention games at all, just Steam. What makes you think that I don't know that Steam just manages the games, even if I've used it for many years by now...

I have never crashed with Steam and All my games but a small fraction of other games doesn't need Steam at all but when I do install those games I direct them to Steam to manage them

Steam has been pretty solid for me since 06

I even buy games off of them and about to purchase a few more in the next couple days

You should uninstall steam do another scan but Check your hard Disc for errors not viruses because it sounds more of a bad sector and steam just happens to be on that bad sector so do a scan disc repair then re install steam and see if that does you justice

Uh... No. My computer is fine, it is Steam. The same thing happens with several of my friends, and there are plenty of threads stating its issue. For most of the time its fine, but sometimes it just does crash.

does steam give you updates and ask for a restart steam if so when was the last update ?

and was it acting this way before the updates or just recently ?

Yes, Steam does update itself. And no, its always been like this, not something a patch introduced. I'm not asking for help on this btw, so no need to help, its fine.