Root account not functioning properly?

so i made myself a root account on the mac and have made it my primary account for about six months. I really havent had many problems but recently i cant open some applications, such as steam when i downloaded it i just wasn't able to open it. The icon would pop in the dock and it would then disappear. The same thing happens when i try to click on the software update, it will bounce once in the dock, then just vanish. I tried to **** repair the hard-drive but that didn't help, this is probably a n00b question with an easy answer but i have been searching the web for this and cant find it anywhere. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!