Wanted to come back for the Return campaign. Haven't logged in in a while. So I ran the update and tried to login, it would go like it's going to run the game, then POL closes, then opens right back up as if I just logged in. If I try to run FFXI again, it again closes POL and opens it back as if I just logged in. Stuck in a loop.
So I uninstalled and reinstalled fresh from the FFXI website, no third parties (no reason to, I have all content tied to my SE ID).
Now, when I try to boot POL, nothing happens. But my task manager says it's open. So I have to open POL a SECOND time to login. Whatever. Minor inconvenience. Now when I try to run FFXI, it freezes for a solid two minutes, then closes like it's going to boot the game, then it just doesn't do anything. It stays closed. FFXI does not pop up in my task manager but it still says POL is running. If I try to reopen POL nothing happens until I forcibly end the process from task manager and reopen. But it does the same thing. When trying to run FFXI (by hitting "Play"), it freezes for a couple minutes, closes, and nothing happens. Let it sit for a solid hour while I walked half a mile to go pay a bill and come back home. Nothing.
Running Windows 7 on a laptop, have been able to play fine ALWAYS in the past, but for some reason this is happening now. Direct X is up to date. Have done complete uninstall and reinstall. Have done forced file check and repair. No external programs (like Windower). Allowed permission through antivirus and firewall and even completely disabled them to see if it would work. Same thing. Then did an uninstall and reinstall with antivirus and firewall completely disabled and updated and the same thing happens.
I've been on this since just before 9am. It is now past 3pm. I'm at a loss.