I am trying to download games I've already bought (The Orange Box) through Steam onto my new PC. The downloader was going ridiculously slowly (5-10kb/s) and has now stopped downloading completely after 3% of Team Fortress 2.

My internet connection seems fine, raced in LFS earlier without any issues, leading me to suspect my previous issues were something to do with a dodgy adapter in my old PC. I ran a speed test and got 3910/380, which also seems fine. My ISP is BT, I don't know whether it could be traffic shaping (but from what I understand that should never completely stop a download?). I've also opened the relevant router ports and setup a static IP address, none of which worked and Windows Firewall is off. I doubt it's my ISP or router ports because my old PC downloaded fine off Steam.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to what I could try? Or alternatively if I copy the games from my old PC will Steam be able to recognize them and save the downloading?

Gabe demands more cheezburgers.

Steam is mindbogglingly slow downloading stuff, it might as well not stopped, but it's just loading that slow you can't even register anymore...

If you copy the game files over and restart Steam, it theoratically should work, yes...

Quote from ajp71 :

Or alternatively if I copy the games from my old PC will Steam be able to recognize them and save the downloading?

Yep that works without problems, just copy the entire SteamApps folder, and all should work fine.

It did for me when I got a new hard drive anyway

Remember, Steam has the ability to create self-extracting .exes of your currents games too.

Right click a game in your list and use "Backup game files", tell it what games you want to add to the archive (useful if you plan on putting it on a disc or limited space drive), tell it where to put it (polite here!), name it and go. It can take a few mins, but it can be pretty useful.

Just copying and pasting the folders worked like a treat

I'm a bit alarmed at the download quality though, may have to see how quickly a few demos take before I buy again over Steam.

Quote from ajp71 :

I'm a bit alarmed at the download quality though, may have to see how quickly a few demos take before I buy again over Steam.

Can't say I've had the same experience. I always get the full speed of my (albeit rather slow) connection when downloading from Steam. It gets a little slow around big releases of course, but that's usually over pretty quick.

The steam servers are fast. I've downloaded CS:S (1.6gb) from them at over 80Mbps (took about 3 minutes) before.

Like a total numpty, I downloaded the ENTIRE Orange box (Digital purchase). I must say that the servers were kicking it out as fast as my paltry 1200Mb connection could suck it in...Took about 36 hours to get the entire package...which equates to LOTS* of GiggleBytes


* Lots=More than I can count wivout taking shoes and socks off...or actually looking at folders cos CBA