FFXI locking up laptop

[geekgirl101]

I didn't used to have this trouble before, but lately FFXI has been causing my laptop to completely lock up at random. At first I thought it might've been overheating the laptop and installed a fan controller to go off at the first sight of it heating up. For a while it seemed to behave, but now I can't stay logged in for more than 30 seconds after starting FFXI and this is from a cold laptop that hasn't been switched on for days.

This is my system specs:

Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit
MacBookPro5
4096MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT

I'm using Steam version of FFXI. I've done recent updates to both Windows Update and the graphics drivers and neither of these seem to have helped. My husband also ran memory tests on it a little while back before installing FFXI to make sure it would work fine and he said there were no problems.

[Dragoy]

Greetings.


How does the computer lock-up exactly?
Just a complete and sudden freeze?
Does it ever re-start or shut-down instead?

If possible, try to actually monitor the temperatures. One well known application for this would be Everest from Lavalys, though the trial version does not show all the information available.
If the problem gradually became more apparent, it could very well be due to dust build-up inside the computer, especially the CPU heat-sink. Compressed air is great for fighting against that though it can be difficult to get everything out of a laptop or desktop even without opening the case.

Running memtest86 (again?) could be a good idea as well, though usually with memory problems and windoze, you would get re-starts and the likes, often same goes with over-heating as well.

A complete and sudden system-freeze on the other hand could be more likely due to a faulty mother-board component, or a hard-drive going bad.

Something you could try is stressing the system via other methods to see if you can re-produce the issue with other things than FFXI. Methods to do this could include but are not limited to running the Video Card Stability Test from the Freestone-Group.

While FFXI does not much make use of the GPU (unfortunately), it's a good idea to try that either way. Likewise there is software to stress the CPU such as Prime95.


These are just some examples and thoughts. It's always more or less tricky to trouble-shoot such issues especially remotely, and if you do decide to stress-test your machine, do note that I can not likely help if anything goes wrong. ^^;

Try the window$ provided test too such as checking the disk for errors and maybe the PlayOnline file-check as well though that most likely will not help with such and issue. Also check the running processes that there are no malicious or un-needed resource hogs taking up too much of your CPU, MEM, and the likes.


Either way, just some thoughts!
Good luck and cake tare~

[Laraul]

Does it EVER lockup while running OSX? I doubt the issue is hardware related. You can run the game in VMWare Fusion without much trouble. I recommend this in the meantime.

How did you install Windows? With bootcamp 3 or an earlier version? You probably should also install the 64bit version of Windows as it properly supports EFI.

[geekgirl101]

It just does a complete and sudden freeze, any sounds will loop like a broken record and whatever was on display is locked in place, including the mouse cursor. There's no response from any mouse/keyboard interaction, the only way to fix it is to hard-reset. It'll even do this after 30 seconds of logging on from a cold laptop that hasn't been turned on for hours, so it's not overheating. Last time I checked it barely hit 50 degrees before it happened.

I think the Windows install was done with bootcamp 3. My husband's gonna do a complete reinstall of Windows for me on it and even take out OSX since I haven't booted into that for like 4 months. I'll suggest to him to use 64bit version this time round and to keep OSX on it so I can do a test on VMWare if that fails.

[Runespider]

I had this problem for a solid 6 months a few years ago, I couldn't figure out what was causing it and it seemed to happen and random times. As you said it would happen exactly the same, the screen would freeze, the last sound effect would loop and the only recourse was a hard reset.

Turned out that one of my ram chips became faulty, replaced it and never had the problem since.

[Dragoy]

I have personally had such experiences (sound-looping and system frozen otherwise) due to bad hardware as well. But still, it can be very difficult to find out what exactly is the issues and it's not impossible that it could still be a software based issue, either.

Stressing different parts of the hardware can sometimes provide the culprit, and indeed probably the most easy-to-try fix is replacing the memory modules. It's quite cheap these days too! ^^;

I would hope it to be something like this, instead of a motherboard component, which for the regular user usually is not feasible to start upon mending...


For now, I can't really say anything else that good luck!
May the Goddess bless thine computer... or something like that.

[geekgirl101]

Well I could have it looked into again I guess. I had the whole HDD wiped clean and after several excruciating hours of dealing with a dodgy CD drive managed to finally get Windows 7 64bit on it. Reinstalled FFXI, ran it...it played for 30 mins, then suddenly it locked up for no reason.

[Dragoy]

I don't know how I forgot to mention the Power Supply Unit, which often can be a problem as well. Though then as well it might usually restart/shutdown instead of just freeze the OS. But it's a possibility.

I don't quite know about the prices for replacing them for laptops, though. Only ever built and owned desktops myself, with only some re-installs for other peoples' laptops but that's pretty much it.


I do hope you can find out the problem...


Iiih, started every line with an I... c r e e p y ~