Hogwarts Legacy Steam Says Game is Running, But it’s Not : Getting an error message that says “Failed to start the game” when you try to run a game through Steam is one of the things that can go wrong (app already running). This problem happens when the last game you played didn’t end properly or when you forgot to quit.
But this problem can be harder to fix, especially if you’re sure you closed the game correctly when you were done.
We have a lot of fixes for you. We’ll start with the easiest and simplest fixes so you don’t have to change too much on your computer, and then we’ll move on to the more complicated ones.
Hogwarts Legacy Steam Says Game is Running, But it’s Not
Close the Game in the Right Way
First, make sure you’re paying attention and check to see if the game is done closing. If you just left a game and want to keep playing, the game might not have ended properly. Most of the time, this problem happens when a high-end game is opened on a low- to mid-end computer and it takes a long time for the game to close.
The first thing you should try is to open Windows Task Manager by pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL or CTRL + SHIFT + ESC. When the Task Manager opens, look through the processes that are running and see if any of them have names that sound like the game you are playing. If it does, right-click on the process and select “End Process.” This should fix the problem right away, and you should be able to close Steam or run another game.
Stopping a process in Windows 10’s Task Manager
TIP: Not all game processes have the same name as the game itself. For example, some Valve games use the hl2.exe process because they are based on Half-Life 2 and use the same Source engine. Team Fortress 2, Portal 2, and Counter-Strike 1.6 are some of these games. If you don’t know what your game is called. Attempt to open its directory.
Even though Task Manager is usually enough, some users have said they needed to use extra software that shows more processes that Task Manager hides.
Process Explorer, which you can get for free from Microsoft’s website, is the best program to use. Process Explorer should show you more processes and apps that are running, so make sure to check processes with names that are similar or that you don’t know.
Process Explorer is more complicated than Task Manager, which is easy to see.
If you used a feature in the game to open a third-party app like a browser to visit one of the links, make sure you close everything before you close Steam or open another game. If this doesn’t work, you can try one of the other ways shown below.
Restart your PC
If you didn’t restart your client after Steam updated or after you installed a new game, that’s probably why. When you install something or download something, there are a lot of configurations that need to happen, and you have to restart your PC for them to happen.
Just turn your PC back on and try to run the game again. If the problem is still there, we can try the following solutions.
Sign in again to Steam
We can try logging out of and then back into your Steam account. This is a simple solution that will restart your client if it is broken.
Note: You shouldn’t use this method if you don’t have access to your account information or your phone (if you have Steam Mobile Authenticator turned on). You will need to enter your username and password to get into your account. If you have authentication turned on, you will also be asked to verify your account.
Use Steam.exe to start up your Steam client
You can log out of Steam by clicking the “Change User” option that appears when you click the name of your account in the top right corner of the Steam client.
When you click the option, you’ll be taken to a screen where you need to enter your login information. Check the box that says “Remember my password” after you’ve put in your username and password. Click the Login button.
Start the game you were trying to play and see if the problem is gone.
Leave the Steam beta
In the Beta program, you get to try out all the features before they are released to the public. However, there may be a lot of bugs and even crashes. We all know that a beta version isn’t the final version, and that the developers are always making changes and tweaks as they learn from your use.
Note: If you are using a feature that is only available in the beta version, it may be turned off because we are switching to the stable version. If you don’t want to lose access to those functions, don’t use this method.
Reload files from Steam
Now all that’s left to do is reinstall Steam and see if that works. When we update your Steam files, we’ll keep the games you’ve already downloaded so you don’t have to do it again. Also, the information about you as a user will be kept.
Refreshing Steam files actually deletes all of the client’s configuration files and forces it to reinstall them. So, if there were any bad files or files that were corrupted, they will be replaced. After using this method, you will need to log in again with your credentials.
If you don’t have that information, you shouldn’t use this solution. If you start the installation process, don’t stop it until it’s done.
You can find out how to update your Steam files by reading our article. Also, use the official Microsoft website to update all of your Microsoft redistributables, such as C++ and the.NET framework.
Note: If you have a connection error and your whole Steam client won’t connect to the internet, you can read our guide.