Have you tried moving them to the top of the download queue? I think that is a good workaround. Don't know if you've got the same issue as what I'm currently thinking of. If that is what it is - may I suggest changing the title to saying "The beta client isn't auto-updating games without moving items in the queue, downloads are queued but never start"
How to move if download queue is total empty and game say "requires the upgrade".
Closing as duplicate of older issue.
Nothing extracted yet.
Downloads page is blank. Steam does not download a game update no longer automatic. Games say that "requires the upgrade". And nothing happens until you have verified the integrity of the game files.
Well verify game cache is only way to know for sure that the game files are all intact, repaired, updated.
check also Steam community page: http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/648814738428073832/
my hardware specs are: https://gist.github.com/lahtis/7346348