Occasionally, the Steam download cache becomes corrupted, causing the PC to freeze when launching Steam. Here’s how corruption causes freezing: Additionally, outdated GPU drivers, interference from third-party applications, and hard drive problems can also lead to PC freezing issues. Since the issue freezes the whole PC for a moment, fixing it is essential to maintain the system’s stability and performance.
1. Update or Reinstall Graphics Drivers
The graphics driver manages the graphical operation when you launch Steam. If the driver is corrupted or outdated, it may fail to manage operations, potentially leading to freezes upon launching Steam. That is why it is recommended to reinstall or update the graphics driver before trying any further solutions.
2. Clear Steam Download Cache
Steam download cache stores the game data and updates in parts so that Steam can continue downloading where it left off if the download is paused for some reason. This eliminates the need to restart the download from the beginning. However, if this Steam download cache becomes corrupted, it could interfere with the Steam startup operations, which could end up freezing the PC. Therefore, we can try clearing the cache to see if the problem is resolved.
3. Perform a clean boot
Running too many applications consumes a significant amount of memory resources, which can cause freezing. Therefore, you can perform a clean boot to disable third-party applications and services from running at the startup.
4. Check your Hard Drives
The freezing issue is often seen when the connected hard drives experience hardware problems, causing the PC to freeze, especially if the multiple hard drives are connected with the Steam libraries. In such cases, you can disconnect all the hard drives except your system drive to check if the problem is resolved. If you don’t want to check the hard drives physically, you can use a third-party utility like CrystalDiskInfo to check their health status and temperature. If the health is too low, your hard drive is likely causing your PC to freeze when launching Steam.
5. Reinstall the steam
Lastly, if none of the solutions helped resolve the issue, we can try reinstalling the Steam. The issue might be occurring due to a problem with the Steam application files, leading to PC freezes. Therefore, you should at least try reinstalling the Steam if you have come this far and the issue persists. If your applications and games are located under the Steam application folder, you can either backup the Steamapps folder and reinstall Steam or you can delete all the Steam application files except the Steam.exe and Steamapps folder and then run Steam.exe to install all the deleted files. This way, you will be able to reinstall Steam without backing up the Steam apps folder.
