sourceinit.dat is considered a type of Dynamic Link Library (DLL) file. Dynamic Link Library files, like sourceinit.dat, are essentially a "guide book" that stores information and instructions for executable (EXE) files - like MpSigStub.exe - to follow. These files were created so that multiple programs (eg. Steam) could share the same sourceinit.dat file, saving valuable memory allocation, therefore making your computer run more efficiently.
Unfortunately, what makes DLL files so convenient and efficient, also makes them extremely vulnerable to problems. If something happens to a shared DAT file, either it goes missing or gets corrupted in some way, it can generate a "runtime" error message. Runtime is pretty self-explanatory; it means that these errors are triggered when sourceinit.dat is attempted to be loaded either when Steam is starting up, or in some cases already running. Some of the most common sourceinit.dat errors include:
- Access Violation at address - sourceinit.dat.
- sourceinit.dat could not be found.
- Cannot find C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\resource\sourceinit.dat.
- Cannot register sourceinit.dat.
- Cannot start Steam. A required component is missing: sourceinit.dat. Please install Steam again.
- Failed to load sourceinit.dat.
- The application has failed to start because sourceinit.dat was not found.
- The file sourceinit.dat is missing or corrupt.
- This application failed to start because sourceinit.dat was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.
Your sourceinit.dat file could be missing due to accidental deletion, uninstalled as a shared file of another program (shared with Steam), or deleted by a malware infection. Furthermore, sourceinit.dat file corruption could be caused from a power outage when loading Steam, system crash while loading sourceinit.dat, bad sectors on your storage media (usually your primary hard drive), or quite commonly, a malware infection. Thus, it's critical to make sure your anti-virus is kept up-to-date and scanning regularly.
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