Steam Fatal Error - Failed To Load Steam.dll

As the title says really. It started off when I bought the Civ 5 expansion 'Brave New World' from an online retailer, after activating it on Steam, it started to download until it reached about 200mb out of 1.2gb when it would stop downloading and say 'Update Required'. I did a bit of Googling and a few suggestions were to verify the game cache (which after successfully validating, didn't work) and delete all the Steam files and folders except for the steamapps folder and the Steam.exe file. So I did. Big mistake. When I tried to launch Steam again I got this pop-up:

http://imgur.com/7jdua4a

So I un-installed and re-installed Steam, and once I launch Steam and the download extracts, the 'failed to load steam.dll' notification appears and promptly closes Steam. I have noticed that when it does this a crash.file is created but disappears once I click OK on the fatal error notification.

These are all the Steam files and folders I have on my computer now after (stupidly?) deleting the original batch and un-installing/re-installing Steam:

http://imgur.com/Xn6z0DT

I assume I need to somehow re-download the Steam.dll file, but how? Very frustrating!

(I realise this is a Steam problem and not a Football Manager one but after submitting a ticket on the Steam website and getting no reply, on-top of not being allowed to post on their forums due to not having sufficient privileges yet, this is my last resort.)

Close Steam, then delete everything in your Steam folder except Steam.exe and the steamapps folder. It will replace all of them when you restart the game. You may have to use the Task Manager to make sure Steam has fully shut down before restarting the game.

That's what I did originally which has led to this unwanted adventure. Steam was working before I deleted everything except the steamapps folder and Steam.exe file, now it won't even open, keeps crashing when trying to extract update and gives me a 'Steam Fatal Error - Failed to Load Steam.dll' notification.

When you say you "uninstalled Steam" did you do that with an uninst.exe, or how? I just checked my folder and didn't see an uninstall app, so if it were me the next thing I'd do would be to do the above process again, then restart the computer, and try opening Steam again, but after the restart.

When you deleted the files and reopened Steam, did it not perform the update?

I un-installed Steam via the control panel, and re-installed Steam through the official Steam website (store.steampowered.com). I've just un-installed Steam, restarted my computer, and re-installed Steam again and the same thing has happened - downloads the update, says its extracting the update and bam Steam Fatal Error - Failed To Load Steam.dll

Oh, I may have had this before. Restart your computer in safe mode and then open the game. It won't open the game, but it may complete the Steam installation issue. That worked for me before with a similar issue. If that doesn't work, I'm out of ideas.

It didn't work. I think my Steam is gone for good on this laptop lol.

Update - I performed a system restore back to mid last month and I now have a full compliment of Steam files and folders. However, when I launch Steam now, after it downloads and extracts the update the notification ''Failed to load SteamUI localization file.'' appears.

What a mess. SteamUI.dll? I could send you the file. I have no idea if that would work, but my guess is if you get rid of one error then it stops at the next one.

You've deleted everything? Including the steam library? That's where the steam.dll is located (although I've seen multiple version of it also in some of the directories of each game).

Sounds like you need a clean wipe of every Steaming thing.

If you have lots of games that would take forever to re-install, but at least you would keep your saves and be able to use it again.

I did delete everything except for the Steam.exe file and the steamapps folder, yeah. However, I've just done a system restore to when Steam was working and everything was right in the World - now I have a full compliment of Steam files and folders (including SteamUI.dll) - the only problem is for some reason I get the ''Failed to load SteamUI localization file.'' error when launching Steam. :|

Wow, I think I've only gone and fixed it! After reading this thread:

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/300189-Steam-update-not-progressing

And post #51, I moved the Steam.exe file from the extracted folder and into the actual Steam folder, launched Steam and it miraculously worked! I'm currently re-downloading my games. However, it appears this workaround didn't last long for the guy in post #51 of that thread so I'm not out of the woods just yet.

iam currently having this kind of problem, when i click play game (dota2) i need to update steam client, when i do so, i need to restart my steam, when i restart my steam, i need to re-update the same thing (repeatedly)

so i decide to uninstall my steam and dota2 by manually delete it, i try to re-install steam via steam official website, at 1st, steam error fail to load steam.dll, i copy that dll file from my mates and paste it at my steam folder at C programfile(x86)

i try to run my steam, now steam error fail to load steamui.dll, i manage to copy that file, but fail

is anyone have solutions for this? coz iam thinking to quit gaming tho