Rare bug? FFXI crashes often since May 23rd. Update

[Aselin]

Situation:

• Re-activated FFXI account at the end of April.
• Re-installed FFXI to two computers-- a netbook with Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit and a desktop PC with Windows 8 Pro 64-bit.
• Begins crashing often on BOTH COMPUTERS post-May 23rd. Update.

Points where it crashes: (Any ONE of the following will crash it.)

• Between zones. Usually after two or four zones it crashes.
• Activating a macro.
• Opening the Treasure Pool.
• Expanding chat window.
• Selecting another player character.
• Selecting a choice in a menu.

Possible solutions I've tried that DID NOT fix it:

• Re-install FFXI and PlayOnline entirely.
• Re-install PlayOnline Viewer to another directory.
• Re-install FFXI to another directory.
• Reducing settings-- disabling mip-mapping, bump mapping, environmental animation, reducing background, overlay and menu resolution, disabling sounds.
• Running PlayOnline.exe as Administrator does not work.
• Running PlayOnline.exe under Windows 7 or Windows XP Pro SP3 Compatibility Mode DOES NOT WORK EITHER!
• Disabling Graphics Stabilization has no effect on the crashes. Crashes with or without it enabled.
• Re-installing Windows 8 Pro and not installing ANY Windows Updates, and having only UPDATED drivers and FFXI/PlayOnline Viewer installed, the game still crashes.
• Updating drivers and installing Windows Updates for Windows 7 on the netbook did not fix it either. Netbook crashes the exact same way as it does on the desktop PC.
• Updating DirectX, Visual C++ Redistributable, and .NET Framework 3.5 and 4 did not fix it.

Solution I have not tried yet: Re-installing Windows XP Pro 32-bit on both computers.

NOTE: Both installations of FFXI and PlayOnline ran PERFECTLY before May 23rd. Update and has had no issues between May 23rd and since I re-installed it in the end April.

I DO NOT WANT TO RE-INSTALL WINDOWS XP JUST FOR THIS GAME. I would really like this fixed soon because it's getting on my nerves now!

Both Windows 7 and Windows 8 report the same error in Event Viewer:

Faulting application name: pol.exe, version: 1.18.13.0, time stamp: 0x4e3bcddc
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x6d652e3c
Faulting process id: 0xfe4
Faulting application start time: 0x01ce777922d96c27
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\PlayOnlineViewer\pol.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 8dfe8ea4-e36c-11e2-be71-001b2198408b
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Faulting application name: pol.exe, version: 1.18.13.0, time stamp: 0x4e3bcddc
Faulting module name: FFXiMain.dll, version: 3.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x51825a32
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0014c9ad
Faulting process id: 0x44c
Faulting application start time: 0x01ce77449e8d606e
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\PlayOnlineViewer\pol.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XI\FFXiMain.dll
Report Id: 1e47919e-e36a-11e2-be71-001b2198408b
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

[Aselin]

Crashed again. I had to force close FFXI in Task Manager.

Event Viewer:

- System

- Provider

[ Name] Application Hang

- EventID 1002

[ Qualifiers] 0

Level 2

Task 101

Keywords 0x80000000000000

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2013-07-04T00:29:59.000000000Z

EventRecordID 2012

Channel Application

Computer Sakura

Security


- EventData

pol.exe
1.18.13.0
1224
01ce781fd6c09b62
4294967295
C:\Program Files (x86)\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\PlayOnlineViewer\pol.exe
da37d118-e440-11e2-be75-001b2198408b


54006F00700020006C006500760065006C002000770069006E0064006F0077002000690073002000690064006C00650000000000


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Binary data:


In Words

0000: 006F0054 00200070 0065006C 00650076
0008: 0020006C 00690077 0064006E 0077006F
0010: 00690020 00200073 00640069 0065006C
0018: 00000000


In Bytes

0000: 54 00 6F 00 70 00 20 00 T.o.p. .
0008: 6C 00 65 00 76 00 65 00 l.e.v.e.
0010: 6C 00 20 00 77 00 69 00 l. .w.i.
0018: 6E 00 64 00 6F 00 77 00 n.d.o.w.
0020: 20 00 69 00 73 00 20 00 .i.s. .
0028: 69 00 64 00 6C 00 65 00 i.d.l.e.
0030: 00 00 00 00 ....

What FFXI does just before it crashes: (ONE of the following happens seconds before crashing or freezing.)

1. Player characters stop animating or stop halfway through animation.
2. FFXI window (windowed or fullscreen) goes completely white.

Video card is not overheating: (64C with FFXI open.)
http://i.imgur.com/4CQrMwn.png

Video card drivers are updated, crashes regardless of driver version.

Tested with Catalyst 12.8 up to current driver Catalyst 13.4.
Tested with Catalyst 13 Beta up to current beta 13.6.

Netbook has latest Intel HD Graphics driver installed.

CPU is NOT OVERCLOCKED. Stock clock speeds for both the Netbook (Intel Atom N455) at 1.66GHz and Desktop PC (Intel Core i5 2400) at 3.10GHz.

Other things tested but FFXI still crashes:

• Disabling DEP.
• Disabling Secure Boot in BIOS.
• Disabling No-Execute (NX) memory protection in BIOS.
• Setting desktop PC to one, two, three and all 4 processor cores.
• Disabling CPU Thermal Throttling.
• Uninstalling anti-virus software. (Tested first with Avast installed and uninstalled; then Bitdefender installed and uninstalled.)

NO OTHER graphical issues present in other games I've tested:

• Company of Heroes 2
• League of Legends
• Minecraft 1.6.1
• Bioshock 1, 2, Infinite
• Sim City 2013
• Team Fortress 2
• TERA Online
• Star Trek Online
• Pangya
• Elsword
• RIFT Online

NO OTHER PROGRAMS installed on desktop PC when crash first started after complete re-installation of Windows 8 Pro 64-bit. FFXI still crashes.

Tested without Windows Updates installed (up to June updates).
Tested with Windows Updates installed (up to June updates).

Tested with different versions of PlayOnline Viewer and FFXI

1. Amazon digital download version of Final Fantasy XI Collectors Edition (with Abyssea Expansions included) and PlayOnline installed.
2. GamersGate digital download version of FFXI Seekers of Adoulin Collectors Edition and PlayOnline installed.
3. PlayOnline's website for the Windows 7/Vista version of PlayOnline setup file.

ALL EXHIBIT THE SAME ISSUE ON BOTH NETBOOK AND DESKTOP PC.

[Aselin]

- System

- Provider

[ Name] Application Error

- EventID 1000

[ Qualifiers] 0

Level 2

Task 100

Keywords 0x80000000000000

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2013-07-04T23:29:29.000000000Z

EventRecordID 2068

Channel Application

Computer Sakura

Security


- EventData

pol.exe
1.18.13.0
4e3bcddc
FFXiMain.dll
3.0.0.0
51825a32
c0000005
0014c9ad
28cc
01ce784da4283d05
C:\Program Files (x86)\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\PlayOnlineViewer\pol.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XI\FFXiMain.dll
920b9c94-e501-11e2-be75-001b2198408b

Another crash earlier.

[Aselin]

Video of what happens before it crashes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sutbTJRPfi8

Either myself or a party member stops completely animating.

AND/OR...

An engaged monster disappears completely from the screen while non-engaged monsters are still visible.

When FFXI (POL.exe) completely locks up, POL.exe's CPU usage jumps to 90-95% CPU usage.

This is FFXI currently as we speak:


Remember: This is after a clean install of Windows 8 Pro AND FFXI. All drivers updated and all Windows Updates installed.

This also happens in Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit on my netbook as well. Exact. Same. Issue.

[Aselin]

Managed to get a crash dump of POL.exe:

Microsoft (R) Windows Debugger Version 6.12.0002.633 AMD64
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Loading Dump File [C:\Users\October\AppData\Local\Temp\pol.DMP]
User Mini Dump File with Full Memory: Only application data is available

Symbol search path is: SRV*C:\Symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Executable search path is:
Windows 7 Version 9200 MP (4 procs) Free x64
Product: WinNt, suite: SingleUserTS
Machine Name:
Debug session time: Fri Jul 5 17:00:11.000 2013 (UTC - 7:00)
System Uptime: 0 days 6:54:17.541
Process Uptime: 0 days 6:35:04.000
................................................................
.................................................
*** WARNING: Unable to verify checksum for FFXiMain.dll
*** ERROR: Symbol file could not be found. Defaulted to export symbols for FFXiMain.dll -
FFXiMain!DllUnregisterServer+0x442ff:
052c27ef 8bf0 mov esi,eax

*******************************************************************************
* *
* Exception Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

The wow64exts extension must be loaded to access 32-bit state.
.load wow64exts will do this if you haven't loaded it already.
The wow64exts extension must be loaded to access 32-bit state.
.load wow64exts will do this if you haven't loaded it already.
The wow64exts extension must be loaded to access 32-bit state.
.
.
.
.
The wow64exts extension must be loaded to access 32-bit state.
.load wow64exts will do this if you haven't loaded it already.
The wow64exts extension must be loaded to access 32-bit state.
.load wow64exts will do this if you haven't loaded it already.
The wow64exts extension must be loaded to access 32-bit state.
.
.
.
.
GetPageUrlData failed, server returned HTTP status 404
URL requested: <a href="http://watson.microsoft.com/StageOne/pol_exe/1_18_13_0/4e3bcddc/unknown/0_0_0_0/bbbbbbb4/80000003/00000000.htm?Retriage=1" rel="nofollow">http://watson.microsoft.com/StageOne/pol_exe/1_18_13_0/4e3bcddc/unknown/0_0_0_0/bbbbbbb4/80000003/00000000.htm?Retriage=1</a>

FAULTING_IP:
+83b2140
00000000 ?? ???

EXCEPTION_RECORD: ffffffffffffffff -- (.exr 0xffffffffffffffff)
ExceptionAddress: 0000000000000000
ExceptionCode: 80000003 (Break instruction exception)
ExceptionFlags: 00000000
NumberParameters: 0

FAULTING_THREAD: 0000000000002114

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: ZEROED_STACK

PROCESS_NAME: pol.exe

ERROR_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0x80000003 - {EXCEPTION} Breakpoint A breakpoint has been reached.

EXCEPTION_CODE: (HRESULT) 0x80000003 (2147483651) - One or more arguments are invalid

MOD_LIST: <ANALYSIS/>

NTGLOBALFLAG: 0

APPLICATION_VERIFIER_FLAGS: 0

PRIMARY_PROBLEM_CLASS: ZEROED_STACK

BUGCHECK_STR: APPLICATION_FAULT_ZEROED_STACK

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from 00000000052958f8 to 00000000052c27ef

STACK_TEXT:
WARNING: Stack unwind information not available. Following frames may be wrong.
0018e954 052958f8 0018e96c 20c4ca80 1c2f6a16 FFXiMain!DllUnregisterServer+0x442ff
0018e970 052c8aae 20bf4220 20bf1ac0 00000000 FFXiMain!DllUnregisterServer+0x17408
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 FFXiMain!DllUnregisterServer+0x4a5be


STACK_COMMAND: ~0s; .ecxr ; kb

FOLLOWUP_IP:
FFXiMain!DllUnregisterServer+442ff
052c27ef 8bf0 mov esi,eax

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: 0

SYMBOL_NAME: ffximain!DllUnregisterServer+442ff

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: FFXiMain

IMAGE_NAME: FFXiMain.dll

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 51825a32

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: ZEROED_STACK_80000003_FFXiMain.dll!DllUnregisterServer

BUCKET_ID: X64_APPLICATION_FAULT_ZEROED_STACK_ffximain!DllUnregisterServer+442ff

WATSON_STAGEONE_URL: <a href="http://watson.microsoft.com/StageOne/pol_exe/1_18_13_0/4e3bcddc/unknown/0_0_0_0/bbbbbbb4/80000003/00000000.htm?Retriage=1" rel="nofollow">http://watson.microsoft.com/StageOne/pol_exe/1_18_13_0/4e3bcddc/unknown/0_0_0_0/bbbbbbb4/80000003/00000000.htm?Retriage=1</a>

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

Since I deal mainly with computer hardware a lot and not software, this is a bit of a foreign language to me.

Whoever can translate this gibberish, it will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[Jubehnka]

Sorry to revive necro post, but this is exactly what is happening to me.
I haven't logs like OP, but I notice the behavior is on 64-bit windows. Tried on 32-bit windows and problem goes away.
I've done clean install of both OS and FFXI software and problem persists (I use the installers from the Abyssea Collection digital download).
I've tested on two computers, one was Core 2 Duo/GeForce 9800M GTS and the other was AMD A6-5200 with Radeon 8400 graphics, both on newest 64 bit drivers. Both systems have 4 GB of RAM and 750 GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue hard drives.

The problem appears to be most common after lengthy play sessions and while acquiring sparks of eminence. First sound effects start lowering in volume, then finally disappear completely, then, as OP mentioned, character movement animations stop loading correctly.

Once sounds start lowering in volume, any change in zone will cause a POL crash, so will minimizing the window. I haven't tested in full screen.

No other games are installed on the computer, sometimes Internet Explorer is running in the background and sometimes along with Flash Player, and Windows Aero is always enabled.