Unable to find steam

05-01-2010, 11:21 AM

Whenever I try to launch Civilization IV (the only steam game I own), I get an application error "Failed to find Steam", even though I get the message from Steam initially saying "preparing to launch Civilization IV." Also, steam is in fact running and has me logged in when I try to launch the game. It's visible in the Task Manager and the task bar. It has been almost a month since I've played the game but nothing about my hardware or software has changed, minus the latest Steam update from April 28th. I have a pretty cruddy internet connection so I haven't attempted to reinstall anything yet, thought I'd look around for a solution first.

My specs:
Windows 7 64bit
AMD 64 X2 4400+ CPU
4GB RAM
NVIDIA Geforce GTX 260
Auzentech HDA Xplosion 7.1 sound card

*edit meant to say "Failed to find steam" in the title

05-02-2010, 10:17 AM

Update: I uninstalled everything, removed the registry entries associated with Steam, deleted the Steam folder, and reinstalled everything. Still get the application error "Failed to find steam" when I try to launch Civ4 from both my desktop shortcut and from within steam.

05-02-2010, 01:17 PM

Update 2: Fixed the problem, of course the solution turned out to be something simple. Turned off Spyware Doctor and the game runs just fine now.

Fruityjoy · 02-17-2012, 10:05 AM

I have the same problem. Anyone who posts and has any idea of a solution would be very apreciated. I have about 30 steam games, and only civilization gives this problem.

Satoru · 02-17-2012, 10:16 AM

http://forums.steamgames.com/forums/...33&postcount=4

Try the fix here, it's due to a hard coded pathing issue that doesn't handle 64 bit OS well.

05-01-2010, 11:21 AM	#1
XrmFuSioN Guest Posts: n/a	Unable to find steam Whenever I try to launch Civilization IV (the only steam game I own), I get an application error "Failed to find Steam", even though I get the message from Steam initially saying "preparing to launch Civilization IV." Also, steam is in fact running and has me logged in when I try to launch the game. It's visible in the Task Manager and the task bar. It has been almost a month since I've played the game but nothing about my hardware or software has changed, minus the latest Steam update from April 28th. I have a pretty cruddy internet connection so I haven't attempted to reinstall anything yet, thought I'd look around for a solution first. My specs: Windows 7 64bit AMD 64 X2 4400+ CPU 4GB RAM NVIDIA Geforce GTX 260 Auzentech HDA Xplosion 7.1 sound card edit meant to say "Failed to find steam" in the title Last edited by XrmFuSioN: 05-01-2010 at 06:56 PM.*

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05-02-2010, 10:17 AM	#2
XrmFuSioN Guest Posts: n/a	Update: I uninstalled everything, removed the registry entries associated with Steam, deleted the Steam folder, and reinstalled everything. Still get the application error "Failed to find steam" when I try to launch Civ4 from both my desktop shortcut and from within steam.

05-02-2010, 01:17 PM	#3
XrmFuSioN Guest Posts: n/a	Update 2: Fixed the problem, of course the solution turned out to be something simple. Turned off Spyware Doctor and the game runs just fine now.

02-17-2012, 10:05 AM	#4
Fruityjoy Join Date: Aug 2011 Reputation: 0 Posts: 2	I have the same problem. Anyone who posts and has any idea of a solution would be very apreciated. I have about 30 steam games, and only civilization gives this problem.

02-17-2012, 10:16 AM	#5
Satoru Join Date: Jul 2008 Reputation: 3144 Posts: 9,059	http://forums.steamgames.com/forums/...33&postcount=4 Try the fix here, it's due to a hard coded pathing issue that doesn't handle 64 bit OS well.