Hay,
If you know ATI's FREE Half-Life 2 offer which come with some ATI
graphics cards please read this.
I have tried get answer from Steam to this questions but it seems that
no one want answer for me.
So I ask from this group.
I have get the picture that I need internet connection and launch
Steam application to play ATI'S offer games on cd. Or at least Valve
Premier Pack's games. Do I have to be on internet connection all the
time I play or every time I start to paly or how? But what I have to
do with Steam application?
Can I play ATI'S offer games Valve Premier Pack and Half-Life 2
without logging in to Steam? And does it enough that I have the ATI
Half-Life 2 coupon and activation key on it?
Is all what I need to play these games the activation key?
I am interested of this because I have logged in to Steam some months
again and I used the Half-Life 2 activation key to download Valve
Premier Pack games. But I felt it was too slow with 56Kb modem and I
throw away my password.
Pity. Once you use the activation key to set up a Steam account and
password, the activation key is no longer usable. If you have
forgotten your password, here is the advice from the Support section
of
www.steampowered.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your Password
The most common cause of this problem is that you forgot your
password.
Often, players will log in, check the box in the login window that
says "remember password" then play for weeks or months without having
to enter their password, then the day comes when they need it and they
don't remember it.
Steam provides an easy way to recover your password, all you have to
do is click on the button in the logon menu that says:
"Retrieve a lost account".
An email will be sent to the contact email address with the account
information.
Of course, if you changed your email address and did not update the
contact email address then you will be in trouble.
PLEASE, ALWAYS KEEP YOUR CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS UP TO DATE.
Here are all your options:
1. You Know Your Account Name and Password
----------------------------------------------
a. You can log in and play
b. You can change your secret question and answer
c. You can change your password
d. You can change your contact email
2. You know Your Account Name but not Your Password
------------------------------------------------------
a. You can use Your Secret Question/Answer to make a new Password
(email sent)
b. If you don't know your Password or your Secret Question/Answer then
you can try filling out the ASK A QUESTION Form and request
assistance.
Be sure to provide as much information about your account as you can.
3. You Don't Know Your Account Name
--------------------------------------
a. Use CDKey to Retrieve Account Name (email sent)
b. Use Contact Name to Retrieve Account Name (email sent)
c. If you don't know your Account Name or your CDKey or Contact Name
then there is nothing anyone can do to help you.
4. Special Problem:
You know you Account name but the Contact Email is wrong or old.
----------------------------------------------------------------
This is difficult because even if you know the answer to the secret
question, the email with the verification code will never be able to
come to you.
The only thing you can do in that case is fill out the ASK A QUESTION
Form and describe your problem as well as provide what information you
have.
Second Account Problem
The next most common reason is players forget their account name, then
create a second account that is almost the same. This happens
especially if a player used an email address for the account name, his
first account might be (e-mail address removed) then he forgot that and created a
second account "joe" and will try and use that account to play, but of
course his CDKey is registered to his first account so he can't play
any games.
Your account names are always used as a folder name in your Steam
installation, you can look in your directories to see what your
account name is. All of the account names will be there unless you
uninstall Steam or manually delete your Steam installation.
Not Their Account
Occasionally, players will try and log into someone else's account
thinking it is theirs, most often if they are trying to log into an
account that is their nickname rather then their actual account name.
Again, using the recover account option is the fastest method to get
back online.
Weak Passwords
One common problem is that players might use a very weak or bad or
predictable password on their account which might let a thief gain
access and hijack the account. Of course, the first thing that will
happen is the thief will change the password and contact email address
so the owner is unable to retrieve the account.
If you currently have a password that is the same as your email or
account name or your nickname, your first or last name or any easy
word with less then 6 characters then you are in considerable risk and
should immediately change your password to a more secure sequence.
Some good rules for passwords are:
Be as long as possible (never shorter than 6 characters).
Include mixed upper and lower case letters if possible.
Include numeric digits if possible.
Do Not use anything related to your personal information.
Do Not use any dictionary word, in any language.
Firewalls
The last situation you might run into is where you used "logout and
exit" and then have an internet connection problem (most typically
caused by your firewall). This also happens when you delete the
Clientregistry.blob file which stores your password.
In this case, when you try to run Steam, it will come up and tell you
that you can't log into Steam until you connect to the internet.
Because your firewall is selectively blocking only Steam (usually due
to an update) you can still browse the web so it looks like you don't
have an internet problem, and indeed, you don't. What you have is a
firewall problem.
The solution there is to open your Firewall User Interface and remove
all references to Steam.exe and HL.exe, then run Steam again. This
time, your Firewall will ask you if you want to allow Steam to have
access to the internet and so you say yes, and now Steam will connect
to the Steam Network and ask you to log in.
In the unfortunate case where the player installed a firewall, then
manually deleted the firewall directory and executables (he didn't use
the add/remove uninstall tool) he might very well still have parts of
the firewall running in memory where he can't see them, but they are
still there trying to protect him from problems.
In this case, Steam and HL will work until the game executables get
updated, and then the Firewall will see that the signatures have
changed and will start blocking Steam and HL from accessing the
internet.
This is the most common cause of Steam getting stuck updating and then
give the message "Failed to connect to the Steam Network"
Unfortunately, there is no user interface left for the player to
control the firewall, and in fact doesn't even think he has a firewall
installed so he's stuck.
Usually the only way to fix this is to go re-install the same firewall
or an update of that firewall and then uninstall it properly using the
add/remove tool in the control panel.
If you are unable to remove the blockage and you are unable to repair
your installation then often the only last option is to re-install
your operating system.
======================================================
The joys of the Steam content-delivery and anti-piracy
monster................
The Support area of
www.steampowered.com has been extensively
updated very recently. I would advise anybody who has an interest in
Steam to read all 11 pages of Q&A under "Find Answers". Very
interesting reading indeed...... especially with regard to account
banning for perceived cheating, with gems like the following:-
"NOTE: Please do not ask what you were banned for.
If you do, your question will not be answered."
So, if for any reason ( e.g: Valve data-base glitch ) you were
banned, you can go sing for your supper........
Emperor Gabe sits on the Steam-powered throne................
A few days ago I tried login with new account but now I can't use the
Half-Life 2 activation key because it can be used only with one
account.
Won't work. The CD-key once used to activate an account cannot
be used again.
So in my case that one was my old account which password I
can't remember.
Can I play offer cd's games(Valve Premier Pack, Half-Life 2) if I have
this kind of problem?
Nope. Not unless they come with a brand-new "CD-Key" with
which you can open one or more new Steeam accounts.
Otherwise, you need to first sort out the problems with your
current account.
John Lewis
