Um... help?

[Stormwaltz]

So in the Deus Ex thread, I mentioned I was having trouble logging in and purchasing stuff from home. I can at work, but not at home, so I decided to file a help ticket through their website.

Except Valve requires you to log in to use the support site. I can't log in - even with a web browser - to get help with the fact that I can't log in. 

I even requested my password, in the unlikely case I was misremembering it, and Steam tells me "We could not find an account with that username or email address."

WTF?

Help?

[Musashi]

That sounds like your account got hacked.  When it happened to me, I had to send an e-mail.

I think this is the page I ended up using.  It has a field at the bottom for if you've lost your pw.

[NiX]

No, you're account didn't get hacked. The website uses a different login. I made the same mistake when trying to get something fixed with my account.

[Engels]

Ya, for whatever boneheaded reason, your support login is created separately from your actual steam login. You just haven't created it yet.

As far as why you can't log into steam, I suspect that your install has somehow gotten corrupted. If its not too much of a pain, I'd uninstall Steam, maybe run CCleaner's registry fix to clear up an erroneous references, then install again. But first, get that support login. So go here https://support.steampowered.com/ and create a new login.

[Stormwaltz]

I tried uninstalling, using CCleaner, and reinstalling tonight. Unfortunately, it didn't work - I still can't log in.

I also hadn't realized that would bulk not just the Steam client, but also the dozens of games I had installed through Steam as well. All I accomplished tonight was to lose dozens of saved games, and create a need to re-download hundreds of gigs.

I... think I'm going to go to bed now.

[Lantyssa]

Is your firewall or router blocking Steam for some reason?

[Musashi]

Ask somebody on your friends list to look you up to see if your name changed, or if you've been on recently. 

[taolurker]

Ask somebody on your friends list to look you up to see if your name changed, or if you've been on recently. 

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Stormwaltz

I tried uninstalling, using CCleaner, and reinstalling tonight. Unfortunately, it didn't work - I still can't log in.

I also hadn't realized that would bulk not just the Steam client, but also the dozens of games I had installed through Steam as well. All I accomplished tonight was to lose dozens of saved games, and create a need to re-download hundreds of gigs.

I... think I'm going to go to bed now.

That really sucks, and I had a problem like this, and mine was because Steam was still open on another machine.  I hope you didn't just uninstall stuff for nothing, but since I don't see you online in Steam I doubt it's running on another machine.

Another thing to consider is you were using an in game name as the login, which I've done. I dunno, but I would maybe try other passwords, or possibly you weren't capitalizing it?

The password reset is something to try again, or email support.

Sure hope you get it fixed.

[Strazos]

I tried uninstalling, using CCleaner, and reinstalling tonight. Unfortunately, it didn't work - I still can't log in.

I also hadn't realized that would bulk not just the Steam client, but also the dozens of games I had installed through Steam as well. All I accomplished tonight was to lose dozens of saved games, and create a need to re-download hundreds of gigs.

I... think I'm going to go to bed now.

False? When I reinstalled Win7, I just reinstalled the Steam client, and everything else still worked.

[Stormwaltz]

False? When I reinstalled Win7, I just reinstalled the Steam client, and everything else still worked.

Maybe it works differently under Win7. My drive shows a few hundred more gigs free, and XFire no longer registers the presence of any of my Steam games.

EDIT: Bizarre. The old steam data is all wiped, but when I quickly reinstalled Plants vs. Zombies and started it, my saved game data was still there.

[Engels]

So its fixed now? Some games save stuff under your /user directories, some save stuff to a sever somewhere.

[Strazos]

I believe I had the same experience under XP.

[Stormwaltz]

It's not fixed. I still can't purchase anything, view or change my account data, or log into or view the Steam Community page.

I can, however, open Steam, download and play games I've already purchased, and I receive popup messages when people on my friends list log in and out, play games, etc.

It's bizarre. No response to my tech ticket yet, but I don't really expect one until Monday.

[Miasma]

Your saved games are usually saved under your windows user account so deleting the game often doesn't harm anything.  Some games also use the steam cloud (like torchlight) so you can pick up where you left off on any computer.  As Nix said in the third post are you sure you aren't confusing your username with your nickname?  For example my nickname, my public persona on steam is [f13]Miasma but my actual username is Detoren...

Stormwaltz showed up online as the nickname but that doesn't mean it's your actual login:

[Stormwaltz]

My user name and player nickname are the same.

I'm online re-downloading DoW1 at the moment.

[Fabricated]

If you're wondering why some savegames are still there even after wiping out the directory it's because some games have "Steam Cloud" support and your saves and settings are stored in the cloud.

I have no idea about the not being able to buy stuff problem. Just wait for the ticket I guess.

[Stormwaltz]

They haven't answered the ticket, but it seems the update fixed the problem. /shrug

[WayAbvPar]

I had something similar happen a few months ago- was trying to purchase as a gift, but it wouldn't display my Steam contacts when it asked me to choose. I can't remember the outcome (other than I eventually got in), but the whole 'log in to support for log in assistance' interface was a clusterfuck.

[Strazos]

I got a damn "expired credentials" error twice today, so I changed my password. Hmmm....