Steam Not Detected

Fire_Eel

<div class="IPBDescription">I checked the FAQ but...</div>Hi all, after a few years, I have decided to come back to play Natural Selection again.

However, I am facing some problems.

I bought the Orange Box months ago, and got my steam up and working. I wanted to play NS again, so I took out my Half-life CD case(which was piled up by years of junk in my store room, God bless how I found the CD) and installed Half-life. The CD key worked, but a weird thing I noticed was that Half-life wasn't detected in Steam.

I uninstalled Half-life, went for the "Activate a product on Steam" but I got an error message telling me the CD key was in use?!

I installed Half-life again, still not detectable on Steam. Regardless, I ran through the training course, all seemed good. Then I tried installing Natural Selection but I got the error message, "Setup has not detected a valid steam install."

Does anyone know why my Natural Selection installer is unable to detect my Steam? I downloaded from the Unknown Worlds website. If the problem is due to Half-life not being detectable on Steam, does anyone know the solution?

Thansal

to install a game in steam you have to activate it with steam.

The error message you got (CD Key already in use) means some one guessed your key and used it (or you activated it in steam your self).

Contact Steam support with your problem and your CD Key.

Fire_Eel

<!--quoteo(post=1687654:date=Sep 9 2008, 05:28 AM:name=Thansal)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Thansal @ Sep 9 2008, 05:28 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1687654"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->to install a game in steam you have to activate it with steam.

The error message you got (CD Key already in use) means some one guessed your key and used it (or you activated it in steam your self).

Contact Steam support with your problem and your CD Key.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

One major problem.

I played that game when I was in grade four or something. That means it's been a good eight, nine years or so since I bought it.

Even if I wasn't stupid enough to have shared my CD Key with someone in these nine years and forgot about it, I do doubt if Valve could have a record for a CD Key that ancient.

Is there truly no solution for me, other than to contact Steam, when most likely I or my family may have shared the CD Key with someone else in the past?

TinCan

If you verified Half-Life does not show up as an available game in Steam and if your sure you did not activate Half-Life under a different Steam account then someone else has used your key.

<!--quoteo(post=1687658:date=Sep 9 2008, 11:06 AM:name=Fire_Eel)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Fire_Eel @ Sep 9 2008, 11:06 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1687658"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Is there truly no solution for me, other than to contact Steam, when most likely I or my family may have shared the CD Key with someone else in the past?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Skip two happy meals and you have enough to buy another key.
<a href="http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=app&AppId=70&cc=US" target="_blank">http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?ar...Id=70&cc=US</a>

Thansal

Valve has a record of your CD Key <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />

Just contact them and tell them this:

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Hello, I recently came back to play a Half Life mod (Natural Selection), and went to activate my old HL Key with Steam. I have never activated my key previously, but I received the error message: "CD Key already in use". My CD Key is: XXXXXXXXXXXX, my Steam Account name is: XXXXXX. Can you help me?

Thank you,
Fire_Eel<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

from what other people have said, this tends to work <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />

yeahseriously

I'm having the same problem, minus the whole cd key thing. I'm just simply trying to install NS. I have the Orange Box, I tried the downloading steam again and installing but it gives me an error during installation; Error 1334. The file 'winui.gcf' cannot be installed because the file cannot be found in cabinet file 'Cabs.w1.cab'. This could indicate a network error, an error reading from the CD-ROM, or a problem with this package.

Thansal

<!--quoteo(post=1688104:date=Sep 14 2008, 03:14 PM:name=yeahseriously)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(yeahseriously @ Sep 14 2008, 03:14 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1688104"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I'm having the same problem, minus the whole cd key thing. I'm just simply trying to install NS. I have the Orange Box, I tried the downloading steam again and installing but it gives me an error during installation; Error 1334. The file 'winui.gcf' cannot be installed because the file cannot be found in cabinet file 'Cabs.w1.cab'. This could indicate a network error, an error reading from the CD-ROM, or a problem with this package.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The orange box doesn't have HL1 in it, and thus you Will not be able to play until you but Half Life

That being said:

Looks like you have some corrupted files, I would probably say uninstalling Steam, deleting it in total, redownloading/reinstalling.