when i turn on my computer, i get a warning from steam. it says "Only one instance can be running at a time". how do i stop this from happening when i start up my machine.
Possibly steam is being started twice when your computer turns on. In Steam, go to File > Settings > Interface and uncheck "Run Steam when Windows starts." If Steam was being loaded twice, the other place (wherever that might be) should still load steam. If not, then something weird is going on.