Help with "Error writing to steam" error making RM2k3 completely unusable

[sportsy]

Anytime I try to do practically anything, this error appears. I've gotten it when trying to apply changes to the database, trying to close the project, even just trying to close the program... the only way I was able to close the project was to delete the project files, but opening a new one and attempting to do anything with it just brought the same issue.

Unfortunately, nothing I've done has fixed it. I couldn't find anything online about it either. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling, restarting Steam, verifying the integrity of the software files, restarting my computer... to no avail.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated... Thank you.

 

[Andar]

two possibilities

1)
steam can connect a new project to the workshop, which will try to upload it constantly.
To prevent that, go to RM's steam properties and disable the steam cloud services as well as all workshop redirects.

2)
steam download cache can be damaged, that always blocks all downloads and checks from steam.
in that case you need to search steam help for the download cache and the button to clear it.
if it doesn't work directly after clearing, you might need to restart the computer and check file integrity of the maker again after clearing and restart.
(with a damaged download cache, all integrity checks return OK even if the program is damaged, that is why you need to clear cache before rechecking)

 

[ATT_Turan]

I couldn't find anything online about it either.

I Googled the error and the was the first hit - this user had a corrupted database and went back to an older save.

Does this help you?

 

[sportsy]

I don't think RM2k3 has workshop or cloud service functionality, I couldn't find any.. For the second solution, sadly it didn't work either. I tried clearing the download cache and seeing if that worked, then I tried restarting the computer and clearing it again before verifying the file integrity, neither of which worked unfortunately.

For the corrupted database suggestion, I don't think it'd be the issue considering the error persists regardless of the current project. After checking, I'm not able to create a new project file to see if it's a corrupted database either. I also don't have backups of my project files, though I should really be keeping those, knowing now they can corrupt like that..

I can't seem to alter or create any project files, so could it possibly be an issue with associated folders or something, or just the project files in general? I'm not sure where to look through those or how to find them though and I'm not really sure how it works either.. Regardless, thank you both for the help

 

[ATT_Turan]

Have you tried either running it as administrator or running it in Windows compatibility mode?

You may want to just contact actual customer support and see if they have any suggestions...this is an old piece of software.

 

[Andar]

OK, I have to correct myself because I misread the error the first time - I read "writing to steam" instead of "stReam", so of course the error has nothing to do with the steam workshop.

On the other hand, that is bad news because it means there is a problem writing to your computer's harddrive.
It can be something like missing rights, try to run the editor as an administrator to check that.
It can also be that you try to create your projects in the wrong folder, or in a folder that is cloudsync'ed by a third party (including Microsoft's OneDrive).
Or it can be a first sign of a harddrive hardware error, please check that with a program like checkdrive (demo version is enough)

Please post the full folderpath to the place where you try to create your projects, from drive letter to project file. It would be something like "C:\folder\folder\folder". That will allow us to check for the various second case options.

 

[ATT_Turan]

OK, I have to correct myself because I misread the error the first time - I read "writing to steam" instead of "stReam", so of course the error has nothing to do with the steam workshop.

To be fair to you, the OP spelled it incorrectly in the thread title.

 

[Cherry]

Can you please download Process Monitor, set a filter for "Process Name" "equals" "rpg2003.exe", trigger the error, stop the monitoring once the error appears and then send me the logfile which you can save from the File menu? Thank you.

 

[Dev_With_Coffee]

I remember seeing this error, I don't remember the cause, but it was possibly the type of disk, in this case I think it could be a defective pendrive.
If it is on your computer's HDD or SSD, there may be a problem with it.
The only related topic I found was this:

How do I fix "STREAM WRITE ERROR" RM2K3 Topic :: rpgmaker.net

rpgmaker.net

We also need to know the following information, what is the path of your project folder and the RPG2003 folder?

 

[sportsy]

I'm not sure what I did or how, but it seems to be working now. Yesterday I tried running it in administrator mode, which didn't seem to change anything so I just turned off my computer and decided to mess with it later. Though this morning when I tried to trigger the error with Process Manager running, the error just wouldn't trigger and it let me do everything normally.

I'm a little worried the error might happen again if it is some sort of hard drive error so I'll keep an eye out for that. I've had errors with my external hard drive in the past, even alongside this error (specifically trying to move different Steam games between the internal hard drive and external hard drive using the "move install folder" in the Steam properties tab, giving some error like "disk write error". Ditto with trying to install programs to the external hard drive) so that could be the cause of it. I'm really not sure..

My installation path for the program itself was C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\RPG Maker 2003 and the project file path was C:\Users\[name]\Documents\rpgmaker ... However, while trying to fix the error I found I had the program installed on both of my hard drives, I'm not sure why. I had multiple project file paths as well, which seemed to be fine before but I ended up deleting the program file folders on the external drive as well as all of my project file folders on both drives just in case. I could still provide a log file if needed but I don't know how helpful it would be considering it's working fine now, though I could in the future if I ever have the issue again.

Thank you all so much for the help. I still have no idea what caused it to work but I'm very grateful either way. My apologies for the "steam/stream" error, I didn't realize it said "error writing to stream" either until Andar pointed it out lol. Thank you again.

 

[Dev_With_Coffee]

A tip unrelated to the problem, start preparing a Backup of the same structure as your user, synchronize your browser data to your cloud account (Live with MsEdge, Google with Chrome, etc.), among others.

Years ago I bought a used notebook to work outside the home to avoid the risk of mine being stolen or accidentally damaged by third parties. In the first month it failed and the problem was physical. I had to buy another HDD, it lasted a little longer and a year due to misuse by other people that I allowed them to use, but the one I keep at home has not had any problems yet and I have had it since 2016.

 

[sportsy]

A tip unrelated to the problem, start preparing a Backup of the same structure as your user, synchronize your browser data to your cloud account (Live with MsEdge, Google with Chrome, etc.), among others.

Years ago I bought a used notebook to work outside the home to avoid the risk of mine being stolen or accidentally damaged by third parties. In the first month it failed and the problem was physical. I had to buy another HDD, it lasted a little longer and a year due to misuse by other people that I allowed them to use, but the one I keep at home has not had any problems yet and I have had it since 2016.

Thank you for the tip, I really appreciate it. I'll try to see if there's anything wrong with my hard drives soon and work on backing up my files and such in the meantime. I'm very thankful for everyone who has pointed out it could possibly be a hard drive error and potentially saving me a lot of needless strife if they were to fail suddenly.

 

[Cherry]

You are right, the log file won't be useful if the error is no longer happening.

Glad it got resolved though, I hope it stays that way. If not, back to Process Monitor

Given that you mentioned an external hard drive being involved and problems with it, it could very well be a harddisk issue like others already pointed out. Also, RM2k(3) won't like it very much if you "rugpull" it by ejecting the harddisk on which the currently open project resides. This could also result in stream write errors because underlying file handles such as to the database file would get closed under its feet and you would have to reopen the project or the software to get it working again even after the harddisk got reconnected. If a harddisk is faulty (or a cable connection flaky!) this could also result in short temporary disconnects which can cause this problem too.

Side note @Dev_With_Coffee: In the old versions, this problem could happen more frequently for a reason that no longer applies, at least for RM2k3. It was that RM2k(3) used to write the currently edited map data into a folder within the Temp directory (%temp%\RPG_TEMP), and sometimes overly-eager PC cleanup tools and the like (which were more a thing back then than they are now) would delete that folder and mess things up for RM2k(3) this way. In the English release of RM2k3 I changed that to use a folder within AppData (%appdata%\KADOKAWA\RPG Maker 2003\WorkingDirectory\<random instance ID>) so this should no longer be an issue.

 

[Dev_With_Coffee]

%appdata%\KADOKAWA\RPG Maker 2003\WorkingDirectory\<random instance ID>

I thought this folder was created just for the battle test, but good to know, it was with this idea that I managed to create the application that resolved the Rm2k3 battle test error