steam scanning updates

[Chunky]

today i came home got on steam played about 1 hr on cs 1.6, pwning some french guys

then decided to do homework, then play some hl2dm
so i boot up pc again, log into steam it seems to be a bit slower this time......as if it is using lotsa processor power or something

when i try and connect to a game server it says scanning for game updates....i thought ok this is just cause of the cs:s update, i didnt have it installed so i guessed it would take a couple of minutes max then let me play hl2dm, i left it for about 15-20 mins and it is still on the same screen, i closed steam, scanned pc for virus and bugs (ad aware latest update) restarted steam it crashed for some reason since then i have restarted steam and it says it is checking for updates again, tis driving me nuts

im using

kg7
geforce ti4200
512mb ram
1800+ athlon xp
60gb maxtor hdd

any ideas what may be causing the long scan if that is really what it is doing?
anyone else having this problem...should i email valve

Chunky

[Lee H]

We're all having the same issue ... well most of the CS Sourcers here. The update servers have told all the games to update and download the new patches for CS:S with the bots update and maps etc. Well as you can image this is like an Irish DDoS attack (no offense guys - I'm 1/2 irish meself ) and the servers are all maxing out.

Give it a fews and it will all chill down again

[Stoo]

moved to gaming as it will probably get a few more responses

[Ruggerbugger]

I had the same problem last night, extremely poor performance in both HL2 and deathmatch, must be the latest raft of updates. Still, at least we're getting updates.

[iMc]

Valve need to set up a seperate set of servers for updates only. That way when update time comes around again people who just want to play an unaffected game will be able to with any hassle.

[TheBuZZard]

The latest steam update made my PC almost unusable while it was in progress. MUst have been some hefty decompressing going on.

[Chunky]

its still playing up
this normal?
ill wait till saturday then try again
Chunky

[scottyman]

it's a bit weird - as two days on the most popular servers I play on are incredibly laggy, despite sub-30 pings