Steam – My Steam gives an “Failure to start game Unknown Error” on games that are already installed and I’ve played it earlier in the day

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Earlier today, I played Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed multiple times between 8:00 AM and 2:00 PM. At around 3-ish it gave me the failure to start game error. I tried all the other games and they all had the same error. All of these games have been played before and are installed on the computer. The internet was working and Steam was online, as I had a notification pop up that one of my friends was playing TF2

Best Answer

I've had similar issues with games, especially Skyrim, and anything I'd played that day would no longer work. I ended up having to restart my PC each time it would appear otherwise I couldn't start my games. Typically I would get it if Skyrim crashed or I cancelled the loading sequence before it was finished.

This blurb is taken from the Steam forums (granted is for a separate game):

Solution 1. Run the game as administrator
Find the file SalvationProphecy.exe

On my computer (win7, 32-bit), it is located here:
C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\SalvationProphecy\bin\release\SalvationProphecy.exe
Right click on it
Select "Run as Administrator"
If that doesn't work, go on to the next test.

Solution 2. Run steam as administrator
Exit steam completely: (top left menu) -> Steam -> Exit
Wait a few seconds for it to finish shutting down
Right click the steam icon
Select "Run as Administrator"
Try running the game normally
If that doesn't work, go on to the next test.

Solution 3. Verify the integrety of game cache
Run Steam
Right click on Salvation Prophecy
Click "Properties"
Click the "LOCAL FILES" tab
Click "VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME CACHE..."
Wait until it is done
Try running the game normally.
If that doesn't work, go on to the next test.

Solution 4. Check your antivirus settings
I can't give precise instructions here, because it depends on your antivirus program. But sometimes they can block a program from launching. There has been a problem reported with Avast.

Solution 5. Restart the computer
The old classic, always worth a shot.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/app/248450/discussions/0/792923683573395036/

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