Steam Gmod reinstall error: "account used elsewhere"

[aPanzerIV]

Oddly enough, the unknown reason for the error is as complicated as why it probably happened. I bought Gmod+TF2 Bundle off of Steam around March 3rd, and 1 single error has driven me mad. I first installed it on my dad's speedy laptop(lets call it comp1), but it took forever to install. While it was, I installed it on my slightly slower desktop(lets call it comp2) and played it for a while, until one day, the 80gb HDD was so stuffed with addons, I needed to strip my old Ideq of its 160gb. The old HD had steam on it, but wasn't used for 4 = 5 yrs. After I put it in, Steam ran fine, and so did Gmod, until I went to play online, I could connect to a server, but once I downloaded the required stuff, It said my account was being used elsewhere. Frustrated, I turned off every single computer in the house and resterted Gmod, but it came up with the same error. With it still installing on dad's laptop, I turned and installed it on my grandpa's gateway W730 - K8X(lets call it comp3) . It ran well, with no problems, until Tennesse flooded a few weeks ago. The internet was so $h!tty, Steam killed itself and tried to reinstall Gmod, not wanting to download 10gb at 2Kb/s, I turned it on offline mode, but Gmod deleted itself and reconnected automaticly. Just today, Gmod finnally finished installing on my dad's laptop. Hoping to finnaly play, I started it up, but the same error that started it came back, when I clicked on a server, it downloaded and said it was being used elsewhere...

comp1 specs (laptop)
Dell Studio 1535
2.00Ghz Core 2 Duo
4gb DDR Ram
250GB HDD
Windows Vista Home 32bit
Radeon HD3450

comp2 specs (desktop)
custom/whitebox
2.8Ghz Pentium D
2.25Gb DDR2 Ram
80Gb Western Digital Sata HD
Nvidea Geforce 8500GT
Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit

comp3 specs (laptop)
Gateway W730 - K8X
2.2Ghz Amd Mobile Athlon 64
1.25Gb DDR Ram
100Gb HD Partitioned 20gb/80gb
Windows XP MCE 32bit / Windows Vista Ultimate32bit (Gmod on XP side)


Thread can also be found here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/239552-49-steam-gmod-reinstall-error-account-elsewhere
And now also here: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100517160741AAW0R4A

Please tell me how I can fix this and move on.

 

[aPanzerIV]

Any thoughts on how I can fix it?

 

[Celegorm]

dumb question time, but you have logged out of steam on all the other computers before launching the games/steam itself right? I've seen times where it has not automatically logged me out.

 

[foothead]

Gmod is screwing up for some people. It simply tells me 'game is unavailable. Try again at a later time.' There is nothing you can do, the error appears to be on Steam's side.

Steam is even more of a clusterF@$& than ever since the new interface. And they have never fixed the old problems. The update reset error has been going on since 07, and I still get it.

 

[aPanzerIV]

Well, I think it has to do with the fact Steam might not close right when you turn off your pc: It will close perfectly mannually, but does not respond when the pc turns off. But that can be taken out as a factor, because I haven't used my desktop since I put in the hard drive, which leads to the laptop which still played it.

2nd Factor:
I was TICKED when Gmod blew up, I didn't uninstall it correctly, I went in to program files, and deleted the WHOLE steam directory while I was still logged on.

3rd factor:
I have been using the same password for like 8 years on every single account on the internet, It hasn't appeared to be busted yet, but then again...

4th factor:
Greedy sister who doesn't like spending money...

5th factor:
The online error only happened on Vista, maybe the peice of cr4p Os has another feature(not 64, I love 64!!!)

 

[foothead]

Change your password.

Also, emailing steam support is a good idea. In three days if it isn't fixed yet, you might get an answer.

Nothing else you listed could really cause this to happen.

 

[aPanzerIV]

Change your password.

Also, emailing steam support is a good idea. In three days if it isn't fixed yet, you might get an answer.

Nothing else you listed could really cause this to happen.

Well, password might not be the problem, what REALLY appears to be the problem, is what I am doing right now:

My Laptop, and my dad's laptop, sitting side-by-side, running steam online at the same time, with no problem... That is weird...

Whats the difference between the two? OS...

 

[foothead]

Definitely change your password. I think they made it so you can have steam logged in on multiple computers, but you can only game on one.

Just change the password and see if it helps.

 

[aPanzerIV]

Password has been changed, with the exception of the ussless acounts, if you want to see the usless banned accounts(mostly unactivation banns), well, here it is:

bIgBooMs@NagaSaki3

The two comps thing, it got, um, weirder:

After 5 minutes, they both signed out and sign ed back in, and at 10min, they both signed out and asked for my password, at 15 minutes of sitting at the desktop, they both closed. Weird Vista...
On both XP Machines, they imediatly saw eachother and loged out.
On both Vista, it asked for my password.


The problem isn't I can't sign in, its that it won't let me go to a Gmod server.

 

[aPanzerIV]

Ok, still doesn't work on vista,but reinstalled on XP, works perfectly...

thanks for your ideas