Steam running fine on my Asus laptop. Finally.
Well, there is an easy fix for the Steam problem. Certain Asus gaming laptops, shipped with both Creative Technology and Realtek sound systems, really confuse Steam if both are used. Once Creative is removed via the Control Panel, Steam runs just fine. Why couldn't I have found that out a couple of years ago? It's not like I didn't spend a week searching the internet for what magically showed up a few days ago, dated 2011.