Steam makes it possible to play an amazing variety of titles.
Unfortunately, when it crashes unexpectedly, these games wont run either.
This can be incredibly frustrating and worse still when you cant identify the cause.
One of them will usually do the trick.
Rebooting your PC resets the cache and system states, which could be interfering with the Steam client.
PCs left running for a long time do tend to behave more erratically, after all.
Update Steam
As every Steam user knows, the client just loves to update.
Too often, some say.
That said, if your client is acting up, an outdated version could be the problem.
Your specific graphics card should have a client installed on your PC.
Open it and check that all drivers are up to date.
If a new driver is causing problems, try rolling back to a previous, more stable version.
Disable GPU Acceleration
GPU accelerated rendering has also been known to cause Steam crashes.
Disabling it might fix the problem.
To do this:
Youll need to restart the Steam client for the changes to take effect.
Reinstall the Client
A stray file could be the cause of your woes.
If so, a quick reinstall using the Steam installer could be the answer.
If you install them somewhere else, your user data and game files could be at risk.
Before rebooting your client, try unplugging all external drives to see if their drivers are the culprits.
To fix this issue, youll need to add Steam as an exception to your Antivirus software.
Check online for a detailed how-to.
Its also important to ensure that your Firewall allows Steam to contact its servers.
Add an exception if thats not the case.
