serious serious issue

[Pokoyo]

i logged onto playonline this morning.. everything was ok until i got to the character selection screen, once id chose my character the screen went black to download info.. then the music crashed and the screen stayed black.. i tried this several times, but it would not go as far as this.. i checked my files using the file repair, it picked up on 2 corrupt files.. i went through the motions of repairing them, but alas, for some reason they couldnt be repaired..

so.. i have had to do a complete reinstall of the game hoping that i can get back online.. now when i reinstall the game (three times now) the first disc loads ok, when i put the second disc in it gets so far and sticks on the file that was corrupt..

rom\97\81.dat

now im stuck with nothing being able to load on my comp, i have no game files on my comp and no way of knowing if ill be able to play again !

i have tried to google some info but cant find anything..

can somebody please please help !

thankyou !

[chubrocka]

sorry i use 360. I hope you find your fix

[Pokoyo]

as it stand now my computer WILL NOT load my games discs so i have zero games files, no playonline on my computer...

this file - rom\97\81.dat

is causing all my issues.........

** i m now on my 6th reinstall and nothing... ive mounted the discs on my PC and still nothing, so not only can i not install from disc, but no i cant install direct from PC

the uploading will NOT go past this file ! rom\97\81.dat

i am using windows 7 and have never had an issue before, only today when the game would load after the character selection screen..

please please please help as it would be such a shame to wste 3 years of gameplay over a stupid issue like this !

[Octaviane]

Sorry can't help you and you will likely not get a response from Mods/Devs or SE by posting here. They never respond to anything posted here. Try posting again in the Forum "Other", hopefully someone out there in the gaming world will be able to assist.

[Raksha]

Have you tried installing in safe mode?
Have you tried disabling any antivirus software?
Have you tried copying all of the files from the disc onto the hard drive and installing it from there?
Have you tried a friend's CD?

[Kraggy]

Reload from the regular backups you've been taking?

[Runespider]

Uninstall FFXI and pol and then re-install. Make sure the CDs are clean and free of scratches.

I guess it's possible the file became read only during the corruption or something and as such is still there and the install won't let you overwrite it? Have you checked if the file is still there?

[Pokoyo]

ive tried all of the above, and more... installed from cd, installed from desktop, nothing.. installed from 2 versions of FFXI discs, ( one from 2005 one from 2010 ) still nothing.. having some serious problems getting the game to load past ROM97 80.dat and for some reson there are two files left on my comp i cannot get rid of and this looks like its causing the problem ROM97 81.dat and 82.dat these will not budge, tried all sorts of programmes to remove the dat files but nothing.. looks like 3 years of my life have been wasted ! and doesnt look like in gunna get back on ! :(

[Pokoyo]

Sorry can't help you and you will likely not get a response from Mods/Devs or SE by posting here. They never respond to anything posted here. Try posting again in the Forum "Other", hopefully someone out there in the gaming world will be able to assist.

well thats just great.. whats the point in posting in a technical forum if the technical people wont answer !.. if id have posted in the main room id have got some smart arse telling me "this isnt the fourm to post this kinda stuff, use the technical section"

.... >.< /epicfail

lol thanks for the info !

[Runespider]

Just rename the folder those 2 read only files are in to something else, they will remain on your pc but you can at least re-install FFXI again properly.

[Raksha]

You tried safe mode, and you disabled your virus scanner? If the file is in use windows won't let it be deleted.

[madmartin]

if all else fails, back everything up, reinstall windows. thatll rule out anything software related.

[Dragoy]

As suggested in the other thread, it does look a lot like a possible hardware failure/failing indeed so I would also recommend backing-up your personal files as a first thing, if possible, and replace the hard-drive with a new one (if possible).

Before you do anything though, I'd also run 'memtest86' to check that it wont pick up errors, and if it does, replace the faulty memory as well.

And if the disk-checks don't pick up anything, before replacing it, I'd likely wipe it clean and re-install the Operating System in case it was actually malicious software doing something 'fishy'.

Of course re-installing an OS isn't something I'd recommend just to anyone to do so it's up to the user themselves to decide if they can do that or not.


Moreover, have you tried the disc(s) in any other driver? Yours might very well be faulty, which would explain the install errors. It doesn't necessarily mean the media is gone bad even if it does spit out errors at the same place. Try on different device(s) if possible.


And as mentioned, this is an issue you will likely not get an official response here, and even if you did, the first thing they would ask you to do is fill the template you can find here:


82


I hope they wont close it, though, so that the players can continue providing ideas and such. ^^
Good luck~

[TRiPP]

It sounds like something is using that file. I'd suggest going into Safe Mode. (If you haven't already and removing it that way.) However, there are some programs that allow you to unlock files that are being used by the system as well as remove them.

[Octaviane]

well thats just great.. whats the point in posting in a technical forum if the technical people wont answer !.. if id have posted in the main room id have got some smart arse telling me "this isnt the fourm to post this kinda stuff, use the technical section"

.... >.< /epicfail

lol thanks for the info !

Problem is your post is not a technical issue on SE's side, and at least people have tried to help you here.

[SE_James]

Pokoyo,

We apologize for the problems you are experiencing. From the description of your problem, there are two possible causes. The first being that the game discs themselves have become damaged, leading to your computer experiencing problems while attempting to read the data, and the second that your computer’s optical drive has become damaged, which is leading to problems while attempting to read the data.

You may want to attempt to copy the data from the game media (CD / DVD) to a location on your computer’s hard drive, and then installing from the copied data. If you still experience problems installing from the hard drive (or even copying the data), then we could only recommend finding replacement software. This would mean either purchasing from a brick and mortar retailer, or from one of the several that offer the game for digital purchase.

[RAIST]

Been a while since I looked at the other thread you started on this issue...but I have yet to see any results of you running any tests on your hardware: CHKDSK's on the drive to check/repair it, memtest86 to check your memory, or anything to test your optical drive or CD/DVD's either. Either one of these items are fairly common items that fail in just a few small spots over time and will only cause problems when certain conditions are met (something tries to read from a bad cell/sector, or only after it reaches a certain operating temperature, or the GPU starts sucking up power and the PSU can't maintain enough output so all voltages drop--a .1 dip off 1.9 volts can cripple high-speed DDR2 RAM).

You can check your CD/DVD's with nero CDSpeed. It's a lightweight program. All you really need to do is run the reading speed and/or quality tests. Speed test will try to read the entire length of the disc--if the disc has a screwy sector on it, it may cause a serious dip in the speed as it tries to re-read it. Quality test will show bad jitter and such--could be a problem with a warped disk or something going bad with the drive itself.

Well... looks like they've changed the name to "Opti Drive Control"...but it still looks and functions basically the same--has a Transfer Rate test, and a Disc Quality test:

http://www.cdspeed2000.com/

As has been stated several times, it could very well be a problem with your hard drive or your memory, and you don't seem to be testing for that issue. You NEED to run chkdsk until it stops reporting it found/fixed errors to rule out that piece of hardware. NTFS routinely has little hiccups that occur just from the simple act of things not shutting down properly sometimes (Windows is screwy that way)--but it has much better recovery...you just have to run the tools to check it periodically.

Checking the RAM and Hard Drive are some of the easiest things to check, and some of the more common points of failure, that's why we often start there. PLEASE...if you haven't run them, do these tests to rule out those pieces of hardware: CHKDSK until it returns no errors, memtest86 until it finds errors or runs a few full passes.

http://www.memtest86.com/
(free download file, they have an ISO that you use to make a boot CD that runs it)

Checking hard drives in Windows7:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html

Checking hard drives in XP:
http://www.updatexp.com/windows-xp-chkdsk.html
(tells how to do it from within windows XP, similar to the Win7/Vista guide)

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx?mfr=true
(this is the command line stuff--very useful to run from Recovery Console (if you boot from the installation CD, or if you've installed it as a boot option). It's easier to see the results when run from console)

You also may need to stress your system and see if your Power Supply is able to keep the voltage up--if you've upgraded to one of the newer graphic cards (ATI4890 or higher, nVidia 220 or higher) and didn't put in a strong PSU, that could be causing a problem with voltages that has slowly "burned" something out. CPUID has a handy free tool (HWMonitor) where you can check some common voltages/temps from your motherboards environment sensors:

http://www.cpuid.com/

Just run it in the background while you thrash the system with some heavy graphics stuff, like The Last Remnant or FFXIV benchmarks. If you see the voltages dip too low (ie: if the 12v is not staying @12v+, you may have a problem--if it's dropping down to 90% (10.8), you have a SERIOUS problem).

[DebbieGibson]

download it.

[Fortwenty]

Can try delete them in safe mode if that fails load up command prompt only and delete the files in dos.