tekHedd – the blog

Me:

Message by you on Tue, 17th Jul 2012 9:23 am
Is Steam updating drivers without telling me?

Last night I had an “AMD Driver Update” update running that I could not cancel and did not ask for. I am certain that I did not even pull down the main menu, much less select “AMD Driver Update”. Could one of my games have triggered this process?

1) It should prompt with an “are you sure” dialog before starting, since the install and download can not be cancelled.

2) It should warn that the install and download can not be cancelled

3) I paused the download, but at this point the other running updates/install downloads began to act strange. I have noticed that (since the beginning) the downloader’s “pause/resume” logic has been broken in general.

4) Lack of transparency = lack of faith in Steam. When I restarted my computer later, the AMD Driver Download prompt was gone. Did it do a silent install without prompting? Did it cancel? How do I know?

I am concerned that Steam is updating drivers on my system without my permission and without notifying me. This is unacceptable. Considering my large and growing investment in games distributed over Steam, this is a major concern. Please reassure me.

tom

Oh maybe they didn’t get the message. Let’s try again.

2 Message by you on Thu, 19th Jul 2012 10:19 am
Hmm, I asked the question on the web site but apparently you need me to ask it again?

I have a download process (now paused) for “Update AMD Drivers” or some such.

I have several questions:

1) How do I cancel this? I want it canceled NOW.

2) I am quite certain that I did not select this from the menu. Could a game have initiated this process?

3) If I did select this from the menu (say by an accidental slip of the
mouse), I most definitely did not have a chance to confirm or cancel. Why not? When will this be fixed?

I again repeat that I do not want my system drivers updated automatically or without my express consent at any time for any reason.

My large and (up to this time) continuously growing library of
Steam-distributed games depends on Steam. Has Steam decided it wants to take control of my PC? If so, I will be quite upset, as I will lose access to my current library of games, and will react accordingly.

With concern,
tom

Steam replies helpfully:

3 Message by Support Tech Bruce on Tue, 24th Jul 2012 12:51 pm
Hello,

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

Here are some steps to help troubleshoot your issue.

If you are running Steam on a PC:

[How to delete and reinstall steam…]

If you are running Steam on a MAC:

[How to delete and reinstall steam… on a MAC!]

If these steps do not apply to your issue, please respond to this ticket.

If you have any further questions, please let us know.

Um, OK. You don’t even know if these apply to my issue; you didn’t read my questions?

4 Message by you on Mon, 30th Jul 2012 7:22 pm
So the answer is to force a reinstall of Steam? This doesn’t seem very elegant.

t/DD

Elegant? Please wait while I look up that word in Google Translate.

5 Message by Support Tech Bruce on Wed, 8th Aug 2012 10:15 am
Hello Tom,

Please try completely removing Steam and re-installing. You may want to print out these instructions for quick reference.

[… helpful instructions]

You didn’t read my questions, did you?

 6 Message by you on Wed, 8th Aug 2012 12:06 pm
Reinstall. I realize that this will, of COURSE cancel all pending
downloads etc, but this sounds like a workaround. It will also clear the symptoms of this bug, preventing any further analysis.

1) Is this confirmed as a known bug?
2) Is this bug fixed in the current release? It will not recur?

This is a security issue. To date, you have not addressed or acknowledged my questions from any communication. Is there a human working there that I can speak with? A “supervisor?” I know, I’ll ask on twitter instead.

And blog my questions. So far steamsupport is winning by a huge margin.

A staff member has replied to your question:

Hello Tom,

Please verify that you have the latest video drivers installed on your system.

To do this, open Steam and log in to your account.

Then, click the “Steam” menu in the upper left hand corner and choose “Check for
Video Driver Updates…”

Follow the prompts to update your video driver.

Once completed, please re-test your issue.

OK, this is simply asinine. Now they’re just messing with me.

 1) Steam is attempting to update my drivers, against my wishes, and your
answer is to update my drivers. Please explain how this reply addresses my
issue, and then I will consider continuing.

(Incidentally, I periodically update my drivers. I am not experiencing
crashing or a video problem at this time.)

2) No response to my query whether this is a known bug or is fixed, or is
simply the result of a user error but has no way to cancel it?

Is there some sort of sentient life form working there that I could speak
with? Perhaps a manager?

I hate to be a bother, but as I’m still hoping to maybe get a response to
my initial query (from several weeks back), and from the responses it is
clear that nobody is even bothering to read my “support” requests, I guess
I’m not bothering anybody.

Somebody at Steam support decide to just mess with me. Right? That’s what’s happening here. My complaint is about how Steam is trying to update my drivers, and the answer is “use Steam to update your drivers”.

If I hadn’t already abandoned all hope, I’d actually be angry about this. As it is, it’s just sad.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2012 at 2:33 pm and is filed under Gaming, Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.