Steam client won't start at all. "Bad field - extends past end of blob" error.

[Pocket Spoon]

When I try to launch Steam, or any Steam game, I get an error message and nothing else happens. I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit.

The error message reads:

Steam.exe (main exception): CMultiFieldBlob(pSerialized): Bad field - extends past end of blob

This only started happening today, it was opening and launching games fine yesterday.

Thanks for your time.

[Maledict21]

If you follow the instructions in this Support article, it should resolve the issue.

Steam.exe (main exception): CMultiFieldBlob(pSerialized)

[Pocket Spoon]

Oh, I didn't see that. Thanks a lot.

Yay! That fixed it for me! Thanks!

thanks alot dude it works now :0

[RockstarMaxx]

Had to do a massive steam update, but it works -_-

[Ol' Scratch]

After reading the description of the problem, I decided to delete "clientregistry.blob" first, because I seem to remember something similar happening a few years ago. Deleted it, started Steam, it updated, then asked me for login info, and launched fine. So, I think deleting EVERYTHING in the directory isn't quite necessary...

[Dubhuir]

Originally Posted by Maledict21

If you follow the instructions in this Support article, it should resolve the issue.

Steam.exe (main exception): CMultiFieldBlob(pSerialized)

I went to great effort to find out my username and stuff for these forums just to thank you. And rep you and all that.

Yeah, it seemed to work at first. But when Steam started updating, it got to about 26% and then the following message appeared.

---------------------------
ERROR
---------------------------
Steam.exe (main exception): ERROR: delete of Steam.exe failed, Win32 Error 5 "Access is denied."
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------


What now? Should I download a new steam.exe or something?

Originally Posted by Whitestar

Yeah, it seemed to work at first. But when Steam started updating, it got to about 26% and then the following message appeared.

---------------------------
ERROR
---------------------------
Steam.exe (main exception): ERROR: delete of Steam.exe failed, Win32 Error 5 "Access is denied."
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------


What now? Should I download a new steam.exe or something?

did the same thing for me just now, all i did was delete the .blob files just keep bringing up the steam client, it will finally fix itself

Originally Posted by Whitestar

Yeah, it seemed to work at first. But when Steam started updating, it got to about 26% and then the following message appeared.

---------------------------
ERROR
---------------------------
Steam.exe (main exception): ERROR: delete of Steam.exe failed, Win32 Error 5 "Access is denied."
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------


What now? Should I download a new steam.exe or something?

Just means that it doesnt have enough control to delete the old files and update. Just right click Steam and "Run as Administator"

[snozzwang]

thanks a lot for that!

That was a pretty painless fix; only took a few minutes. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Ol' Scratch

After reading the description of the problem, I decided to delete "clientregistry.blob" first, because I seem to remember something similar happening a few years ago. Deleted it, started Steam, it updated, then asked me for login info, and launched fine. So, I think deleting EVERYTHING in the directory isn't quite necessary...

He is right. Deleting EVERYTHING is not necessary, not for my case atleast. I had the same error, and i just deleted "clientregistry.blob" relaunched steam after that and I skipped the long update process of deleting EVERYTHING.

tl;dr
Try deleting "clientregistry.blob" file first before following steam's solution.

Originally Posted by gurd

He is right. Deleting EVERYTHING is not necessary, not for my case atleast. I had the same error, and i just deleted "clientregistry.blob" relaunched steam after that and I skipped the long update process of deleting EVERYTHING.

tl;dr
Try deleting "clientregistry.blob" file first before following steam's solution.

Does not always work, unfortunately. at least not in my case T-T