The Steam program has been pissing me off for quite sometime.
Crashes, Freeze up/hang ups, System slowdowns, Download file corruptions and issues when playing online in TF2 and L4D2 (also issues with the backpack loadout feature in TF2.) to just name a few. The last two I'm putting down to my rubbish bandwidth speed but if anyone has had those issues recently, please inform me.
After several reinstalls and ploughing through pages upon pages of websites, (Steam forums, Steam support etc) I've concluded that Steam is a Steaming pile of crap. (Either that or I'm just short tempered). My initial thought was it was background programs causing the issue, but by turning off all background programs upon start up and then running Steam, I am still getting hang ups when loading games. Sometimes it fixes itself after a couple of minutes and then runs the game, or it greys out and I have to kill the process via Task Manager.

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit on an Intel i5 Duel Core 3.2Ghz. And yet, Steam runs much smoother on my 1.4Ghz Celeron Laptop?

I was just curious too see if anyone had had these issues and found a fix or knows of something that may be causing this.
Regards.

EDIT: Just before I posted that, It saw it freeze up on me again. That time, I wasn't trying to run a game obviously but a window border appeared around it and it greyed out. All it was doing was download ARMA II in the background.

I don't know if this has anything to do with your troubles, but on the rare occasions when Steam crashes on me, it's typically because the Internet connection blinks out for a moment. It's a fairly recent phenomenon, I suspect it may be related to Steam Guard.

Yeah what Jonas said. Have you checked your memory lately? A couple of PCs ago all that kind of weird shit was happening to me, and it turned out one of the memory sticks was dying.

I can't give first-person impressions since avoiding it like the plague. It may only host on my old barely used PC (and it gave some major issues in games there).

But second-hand impressions on a Divinity II forum (unable to run/install and such fun) confirm; crap.

That could be it then. I do have a very temperamental router, and I think I have noticed a pattern; the crashes/freezes/whatever seem to occur more often when I'm downloading something...

And I've already had grief with Steam Guard so it is quite possible that that could also be the cause. It's an excellent idea, don't get me wrong! It's even stopped me getting into my own account more than once now!

@bobby; I'd be somewhat surprised/worried if it were my memory. I've only had this machine 6 Months, Max.

Ahh well, I'll just see how it goes. Thanks for the quick responses guys.

Aha, well what ever it is I hope you get it sorted. I'm getting more annoyed with getting games running than I should be lately.

With Steam, or just in General?

In general. The only complaint I've had with Steam this year has been the download speeds of games I've been installing. The Portal 2 glitches, which they've resolved pretty fast, obviously has nothing to do with the Steam client itself.

My only problem with Steam is that it freezes for a few seconds when I start my pc back up from hibernation.

I have problems joining games in left 4 dead 2 as well, but I have not experienced freezes or crashes.

Well, Now I can't connect to any online servers, (I've been trying to play online in two Source Mods; GoldenEye Source and Overwatch) and neither worked. Not because of the mod, and not because of the server itself. An error message appeared telling me that I was logged into another computer elsewhere! I don't believe I am, because the Steam Client itself would kick up a fuss, not just when connecting to online games.

Did you say you had a new computer? I'm wondering if this isn't tied up with Steam Cloud and that frickin synchronizing. A couple of days ago, after playing Portal 2, I reinstalled the original Portal which I hadn't played since buying my new PC. When I started to play, Steam wanted me to either download Cloud or upload some Portal files for the afore-mentioned synchronizing to take place. Although if you didn't receive a message it mightn't be that all.

I can't see it being a Steam Cloud issue, though it is always something to keep in mind.
The only issue I've had with the Cloud so far is that it bugs me if it cannot connect to the cloud to synchronize, due to my crap internet connection.
It took about 7 hours to download 3GB today! An all time low for my download speeds I must say.

Well, a game I wanted, I was misinformed about. Requiring Steam.
It doesn't work on my old PC, so I had to contaminate my new PC after all it seems...

Oh yay, long loading times. Crashing when trying to load my save. My game apparently not working...
Fun!

Ouch. Couple of Million people use this bloody software, Valve have got people by the scruff of the neck, forcing them to use it. Not everyone seems to have problems with it though, Hassat and I just don't get along with it, it seems.