Steam crashes after opening a second group chat.

[AshTR]

I'm managing to replicate this issue every time I open Steam (and I actually remember having this same bug on Enhanced Steam way back when, caused me to switch skins then) and open two group chats, Steam will crash. This does not happen with the other skins I have like PixelVision or Air.

For the record as well, the group chats I open from the Friends list are the Reddit one, then the Steam Gifts (S.Gifts) chat.

[DirtDiglett]

Hi AshTR,

I've not been able to replicate this issue on either my Macbook or my Windows PC joining multiple groups... Can you please provide me the SteamCommunity URLs for both of those groups so I can be sure I am using the exact same groups as you.

What OS are you running? And does it specifically occur with those two group chats? IE: If you were to join the Pressure Group + another group does it crash?

Thanks!

[AshTR]

Hrm...Looks to just be the Steam Gifts chat specifically.

I'm running Windows 7, fully patched, etc.

Here's the group: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamgifts

[DirtDiglett]

At this stage, I cannot reproduce the issue (As per our chats on Steam) using the same setup as yourself.

If any other people are having this issue please add a comment to this issue and let me know your setups as well as the group causing the issue.

[Xeonneo]

I'm having the same problem. It seems to freeze when I try to open a group chat with any other chat open. I think it has to do with the activity of the chat room. I tried joining a chat with 18 people in it and lots of activity and it froze, but the steam group chat with one other person in it didn't.

I'm running Windows 8.1 with 6GB RAM, 2.7GHz AMD A6-4400M APU, and a Radeon HD 7520G with 512 MB Vram.

Sorry if I'm not supposed to comment that I have the same issue. I'll open a new ticket if I need to.

[AwkwardOrpheus]

I've noticed this to cause over a few different group chats, as much as I know I don't think it's your skin, however it could be. I've gotten this problem after opening a chat whilst having Steam up for a few days.

[AshTR]

It's completely skin-specific for me. I don't get the problem whatsoever with PixelVision and Air. Don't know why.

With Enhanced Steam (made by Dirt back when he was TTD), I had the issue in a similar respect though and now I have this same issue with Pressure.

Part of me wonders if it's a DirectWrite bug or something that this skin and Enhanced Steam seemed to tap and cause Steam to crash.

It's a shame that Steam makes it so hard to bugfix a skin.

[DirtDiglett]

The fact that it's not reproducable on my end with the same setup is what makes this hard to resolve. Can you try disabling DirectWrite in Steam Settings>Interface, perform a restart of Steam and let me know if it continued.

[AshTR]

Okay, that is REALLY weird.

First off, DirectWrite can be enabled on-the-fly. There's no need to restart Steam. Second, when I disable it and join the Reddit then S.Gifts group, there's no problem.

The problem arises when DirectWrite is on. I join the Reddit group, then the S.Gifts group, instant crash.

Now I have to wonder if this is a Steam problem or something your skin calls in DirectWrite that crashes Steam. I guess it could even be a bug in DirectWrite itself.

[DirtDiglett]

I've just written a custom version of the group chat file that removes what could be causing the issue, can you please copy this ChatRoomDlg.res file into the /pressure/friends folder and overwrite the existing one and let me know if that helps?

https://mega.co.nz/#!T80S2AAT!f8LI3FbYHdGvmLbSaIX4UEtq8hu949gXnRK38khFFpY

[Xeonneo]

I'm still having the same issue with the group chats after installing the fix. And turning off DirectWrite did seem to fix the problem. It also only happens after I've had steam open for a while. I can enter a chatroom when I first start steam without trouble.

Wait, no, disabling DirectWrite didn't fix it.

[Luffeh]

I have the same problem, Steam stops responding when I try to join a chatroom, after Steam boots up again, I seem to be able to join the chatroom.

[AshTR]

So that's weird. The first time I use the file, it works no problem. I restart Steam, it breaks again.

I'm starting to sense that the issue is with Steam itself.

[DirtDiglett]

I know you guys would love to be using Pressure, but for the purposes of isolation can those of you who experience the problem please revert to the Default Steam skin for a few days and use the client normally and see if the issue happens.

[DirtDiglett]

Well nobody has replied to this in over a week so I'm assuming it's fixed.

[Luffeh]

I've had no troubles joining a chatroom without the Pressure skin, but whenever I use Pressure there's a good chance Steam crashes when I try to join a chatroom, so I have to open Steam again, and try again until it works (which sometimes even takes 3-4 tries.)

[AwkwardOrpheus]

I did experience a crash last night, although it's very rare and not bothersome to me. It happened because I had a lot of chats open at once, then I decided to join a chatroom.

[AshTR]

I just gave up on the skin myself. I doubt there's any way to properly diagnose the actual issue.

[iwsfg]

Just happened to me. It seems that it's not related to what chatroom it is opened, like somebody guessed earlier. I had about three tabs opened with regular chat, one group chat with long log in it and when I tried to join second group chat I've got my client frozen. It does not happened right after launching steam up, though.

I'm using revision from 56c5cec5f10b677a844422307e6c386120de5692, but there isn't any commits mentioned in this issue, so I guess nothing has changed.

I'll try to find out later how can we reproduce that persistently and if it's really skin-specific.

[Asphira]

I have not managed to replicate this issue myself, At this current time I have about 6 friends chat windows open and 5 groups, 2 in the same window and the rest individual.