Can't install updates

[DOMX]

Day 1, 7 Jan. 9:00 am. I load my new DVD and click install. Instead of installing the game it begins to install Steam. I tell Diane that the phone will be tied up for a while since we have a dial up connection. 5 hours later I have a valid Steam account and Steam has has presumably installed the game but won't let me play it because it is downloading 2 updates.

 

Day 2, 8 Jan. Steam has been downloading updates for about over 28 hours when I go to Betesda tech. support. But Bethesda has no relevant tech. support so I go to Steam tech. support. I locate the slow download troubleshooting page and try various recommended things such as changeing servers from LA to San Jose to Sacrmento, turning off my firewall, turning off cloud, etc. Nothing helps Windows 7 says my modem is working fine. At 4:01 pm I complain to the Steam trouble desk and tell them that Steam has been downloading my updates for 32 hours at speeds as low as 1 Byte per second. I get an automated email saying they will email me asap.

 

Day 3, 9 Jan. is uneventfull as Steam cotinues to download my updates. I peruse this forum and find the post about installing the game from the disk instead of Steam. However I don't think it will help because it says you still have to download the updates from Steam and that is my problem. I believe that Steam installed the game on the afternoon of day 1 so would reinstalling by the disk method do me any good? The Steam download screen says: updated 6,687.6 MB / 6,919.6 MB so I calculate that I will need to download 232 MB to complete the download. I should reach that tomorrow.

 

Day 4, 10 Jan. The 232 MB of downloading has long past. Still no responce from the Steam trouble desk. At 11:11 am. I contact the steam trouble desk again and ask them what in the heck I'm downloading and how big it is so I can calculate how long it will take. At that point I had downloaded 402 MB and it says: updated 6,705.1 / 6,919.6. It also says 11 Min. 25 sec. remaining but that doesn't mean much since it said 12 Min. remaining 2 days ago. By 3:42 pm I had downloaded 454 MB of the 232 I assume I need so obviously something is wrong. Someone on this site said tht the patch is only 250 MB. Maybe I need to restart my computer to install it? I asked Steam what would happen if I tried that but still no response from them so I tried it. Big mistake!! Back to day one!

 

Day 5, 11 Jan. Since I'm starting over I tried reinstalling the game. Didn't help. Often I can't access Steam at all. After abou 20 min. of looking at a screen that says: starting Steam or logging on to Steam it says the Steam servers are busy or not available, or try again. At 2:19 pm. I finally got a reply from the Steam trouble desk. It was nothing but a link to their troubleshooting page and answered none of my questions. Glad we could help, case closed, etc.

 

Day 6, 12 Jan. I completely uninstalled Steam and the game and started over. It was the same as day 1 except when it asked if I wanted to create a new account or use my existing account I didn't know what to do

. I decided that having 2 accounts would probably cause even more problems so I used my existing account.

 

Day 7. 13 Jan. I'm posting this. The Steam download screen currently says: 2 items downloading at 0 bytes per second. 115.6 MB dowloaded. 6,673.2 MB / 6,919.6 MB.

 

I am using Windows 7 and I have installed the game in my documents folder so I can mod it if it ever installs.

 

Could someone please tell me what the 2 items are that I am downloading and how big they are?

Is there any way I can play the game now?

Since the game is already installed would reinstalling the game with the installing from disk procedure posted here do me any good?

If the game ever installs will I have to go on line and log onto Steam every time I play it?

Anything else that might help??

 

Don't bother calling me, my phone is busy. Diane not happy.