Trouble with Steam. Any advice?

[Jumpingbean3]

I recently got Team Fortress 2 on Steam and after a day or two I've hit a snag. Just so you know the basic conditions I am using the MAC version of Steam (no I am not going to get a PC) I got TF2 in a bundle with Gmod and I have not installed the TF2 Beta that game with the bundle.

Anyway, on to the problem.

Yesterday I tried to boot up TF2 (I think it had crashed right before the problem occurred) and I found a message that said it was validating the game files (claiming to be updating it). It went by fairly quickly until it reached the 90% mark at which point it just seemed to stop altogether. After a while I got tired of it and just cancelled it and a message came up in the library saying an update was paused so I started it again and got the same result.

This afternoon I tried it again and actually kept a closer eye on the progress bar. I saw it go to 90% to 95% to 100% and then back to 90% about two or three times before it finally stopped at 90% again. I went out, leaving my computer and modem on on the off chance that the update finished while I was out. I came back about an hour and a half later and found the progress bar at 93%. I know that the net can get busy but this was like 8:45 am EST when most people should be at or on their way to school or work. I had now been around five hours since I started it up this afternoon (BST) and it has only reached 96%.

Does anyone have any ideas of what has happened and how I might solve it? Should I install the TF2 Beta? Should I uninstall and reinstall the game? Are the servers just that busy?

Also if you have had similar problems please let me know.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

First, right-click TF2 and go to properties(avoiding obvious joke), check Local files-Fragmentation first.
Then go into the folder and have a quick search for new files. Knock them out and re-try validation.

If all else fails try

Force Steam to quit.
Navigate to Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps and delete the following files:

team fortress 2 client content.gcf
team fortress 2 content.gcf
team fortress 2 materials.gcf

Launch Steam.
Find tf2 in your games library and click Install.

 

[Jumpingbean3]

First, right-click TF2 and go to properties(avoiding obvious joke), check Local files-Fragmentation first.
Then go into the folder and have a quick search for new files. Knock them out and re-try validation.

If all else fails try

Force Steam to quit.
Navigate to Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps and delete the following files:

team fortress 2 client content.gcf
team fortress 2 content.gcf
team fortress 2 materials.gcf

Launch Steam.
Find tf2 in your games library and click Install.

Which option do I pick to search for new files? I've tried Backup Files but a message pops up saying i can't back up files until it finishes updating. Also the Item Downloading bar at the bottom looks a lot more full than before when it was at around 90%.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Which option do I pick to search for new files? I've tried Backup Files but a message pops up saying i can't back up files until it finishes updating. Also the Item Downloading bar at the bottom looks a lot more full than before when it was at around 90%.

Simply open the TF2 directory and look at "last updated". The .gcf's are usually the problem causers though. And the download for them isn't long.

 

[Jumpingbean3]

I think I see the problem now. For whatever reason it seems to be updating at a max speed of 16 Kilabytes per second. It may be that the update bar is changing erratically due to some minor glitch. I am going to leave my Steam on overnight and see if I'm right. I would still appreciate your suggestions in case my theory turns out to be wrong.

 

[Jumpingbean3]

Which option do I pick to search for new files? I've tried Backup Files but a message pops up saying i can't back up files until it finishes updating. Also the Item Downloading bar at the bottom looks a lot more full than before when it was at around 90%.

Simply open the TF2 directory and look at "last updated". The .gcf's are usually the problem causers though. And the download for them isn't long.

I can't see a Last Updated option anywhere. I'm still very new to Steam.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I can't see a Last Updated option anywhere. I'm still very new to Steam.

Open the folder using whatever the Mac version of Explorer is. Arrange icons by date.

You might also want to try this: Means a larger download but it'll clear any rubbish cache you have.

Go into your steam folder and delete everything apart from the Steamapps folder and Steam.exe. Restart the computer and open Steam from the exe alone.