Thread: Windows 8.1 crashing / slowdown / memory leak

I'm having an issue with Windows 8.1, on both my laptop, and my desktop, my GFs computer, and my friends computer.

What they all have in common? Windows 8.1. What else? Not much.

I had no crashes on Windows 7, and Windows 8 was fairly stable.

I have completely reformatted my PC and updated all drivers to their latest versions. This has happened with every iteration of the drivers from AMD.

My desktop:
Custom build
motherboard evga FTW 3
processor Intel i7 980X Extreme
Graphics cards Dual Crossfire AMD 7970
Memory 16gb 1600hz DDR3
Storage SSD 512gb
Windows 8.1 Pro

My laptop:
Macbook Pro Retina Display (1gb Nvidia GTX 650m) w/ 8gb memory
Windows 8.1 Pro
512gb SSD Storage


Here is the issue:
Eventually, over time, FFXIV gets slower and slower, and it's triggered by a particle effect. The game will drop to about 2-4 FPS (From 150) and go into slow motion mode.
Earlier today, I was running Wanderers Palace, and I was unable to engage the boss before being locked out because it took me more than 15 seconds to run across a hallway I can normally clear in about 3 seconds.


Usually when teleporting, as soon as teleport is engaged, the game immediately crashes with this error in Windows Event Viewer

Faulting application name: ffxiv.exe, version: 1.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x5266ada2
Faulting module name: ffxiv.exe, version: 1.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x5266ada2
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000e0bf6
Faulting process id: 0x1290
Faulting application start time: 0x01cedfbe4b414555
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\game\ffxiv.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\game\ffxiv.exe
Report Id: 91962576-4bea-11e3-8257-001fbc0968e7
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:


ffxiv.exe


1.0.0.0


5266ada2


ffxiv.exe


1.0.0.0


5266ada2


c0000005


000e0bf6


1290


01cedfbe4b414555


C:\Program Files (x86)\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\game\ffxiv.exe


C:\Program Files (x86)\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\game\ffxiv.exe


91962576-4bea-11e3-8257-001fbc0968e7

Any other logs I can upload? DXdiag.txt is massive, and I can't seem to find any logs for FFXIV.

Sigh. Windows 8.1 bug. Likely related to a registry corruption or some kind of permissions issue (8.1 has all SORTS of these issues).

That you are leaking memory makes sense as the .exe is accessing memory caches it shouldn't and is probably not cleaning it up when it's done using them. When the memory reaches max, the .exe crashes and "kernel panics" (if Windows calls it that).

0xc0000005 is your memory fault error code
0x000e0bf6 is directly related to ffxiv.exe crashing

Reading a few KB's online about this seems to point to either a recent windows update issue, or with a corruption in regedit itself.

Only God can help you if it's a bug in permissions. That bug is so bad it may not even let you format or fall back to win 7.

You can try rolling back to a previous Windows 8.1 version or use a reg cleaner to correct the issue. It's been my personal experience that once the registry gets corrupted in 8.1, you basically have to full format back to 7 or reformat on 8.1.

8.1 is Satan in disguise as an OS. If I were in your shoes, I would get as far away as possible from 8.1 and get it off your machine and never EVER put it back on. It's hands down the worst OS I have ever dealt with and has more bugs in it than I've seen with any alpha build ever.

You can't revert windows 8.1 back to windows 8 or windows 7 without a fresh install. Also, this is a fresh install of windows 8.1 - I got the full install from my Technet subscription.


But to happen on 3 computers? With different hardware and different GPUs?

It definitely seems to be windows 8.1 itself but I'd like to try to help pinpoint what causes the problem so we can find a solution.

Hello, we have 8.1 here on three different pcs too. All of them work absolutely perfect with xiv.

Maybe you have some software that is messing with your windows 8.1?

Originally Posted by AunaYuuki

I'm afraid to update to 8.1 because my sister's boyfriend warned me about its issues. It can mess with your graphics card big time they said basically and cause your FPS to freeze frame or slow down. I refuse to update it, too many issues.

That's the issue all 3 of us are having. In addition to the crashes.

I found a couple support threads that had indicated it could be caused by a windows update. Can you roll back to a previous point before any updates on 8.1?

There's only a couple of things I can think of that can cause the memory leak you're seeing:

1.) A Windows update has caused some kind of corruption that's allowing the .exe to allocate memory it shouldn't and not freeing up the memory when it isn't needed. You can try to roll back to a previous restore to test this one.

2.) A file your registry is corrupted and is letting the .exe run amok eating up memory until there is none left crashing the app in a kernel panic. Try to use a reg cleaner to see if it cleans up the issue.

Those are the only things that could be the cause that I can think of. I dunno, Windows 8.1 gave me a permissions issue and made FFXIV have problems. I couldn't get 8.1 off and the corruption was so deep that I had to BIOS flash (which flashed bad) where I now have to pick up a new motherboard. I personally don't trust 8.1. It's literally the root of all evil.

Simple

Do not use Windows 8

hmm.. very bad indeed. I have Win8.1 installed and no problems since release. All updates installed too... Looks like it's a nasty bug... a reformat is in session although i do hate reformatting because of one software issue. And that you reformatted seems to repeat itself? Wow, maybe an AMD issue with FFXIV graphics coding.

I have and AMD8350 wih a NVidia GTX 580 and 16gb of RAM. As far as I can tell. Smooth as butter for me. No slowdowns or Bluescreens. I fixed all issues related to FFXIV to run by setting my cpu voltage to 1.42... this game seems to use lots of cpu power.

Hope someone can fix this problem for you. Cheers!

Any updates on the issue from the OP? I'd be interested in knowing the outcome.