CRASHING...

[bluefluffmonkey]

I recently came back to FFXI and still had the game installed, but bought all the new expansions I didn't have and updated the game... I have never had any trouble running this game until now... My sound just completely stops working and then weird things would happen...and then it would crash and need to be restarted...but after restarting the game it would work fine and then the sound would go out again. .and the whole cycle would restart itself... but my husband who also plays the game put FFXI on the other computer and the same thing will happen to him!!

[Feynman]

First thoughts are to try the file check on the POL home screen. Also I think I saw a similar post on here some months past. You may want to look around and see what you can find there until a GM can get back to you.

[Gazaka]

Exactly the same issue here!

Details:
Been away from FFXI for 17months. Come back on and installed FFXI from newly purchased steam download pack. Fresh install of OS and everything. First sign of problems is when the sound goes. After that, I'm pretty much waiting for a crash. Mid Abyssea party it went 4 times and crashed each time. Opening a chest boots me from the game. Talking to a NPC boots me from the game.

Steps:
No real steps occurred to replicate the error, it just seems to happen soon after losing the sounds. I have had a crash with the npc in port jeuno. the shop near the AH and the npc to the left.

Date & Time:
Last time it happened was opening a gold chest in Abyssea - Vunkerl. 26th March 2012 @ 16:45 GMT+1

Frequency:
State how frequent the issue occurs. Always, not had an instance without a crash since my return last week.

Platform:
Windows PC

PC Manufacturer & Model Number:
Homebuilt system
My Computer specs:
Z68XP-UD3P Motherboard
On-Board Sound Hardware - Realtek HD Audio
i7-2600k @ 3.4GHz
16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM

Operating System:
Windows 7 Ultimate x64bit (SP1) Fresh install all updates done.

Graphics Card:
EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 1024MB DDR5 - latest released Nvidia drivers.

ISP:
Virginmedia UK

Type of Internet Connection:
Fiber Optic 30mb

Will provide a copy of dxdiag if needed. Awaiting on confirmation of error and any assistance is greatly welcome!

[RAIST]

There could be some stability issues on the video card side--the 560 series is not officially supported yet (SE hasn't done any driver testing with it yet, and they have already acknowledged there are issues with them in another thread).

Could also be some issues with your sound card/driver/management software as well (might want to post these details). There have been reports of issues with people who are setup with the Soundblaster software running on chips that are not actually branded as Creative Labs hardware (ie: Realtek can run the Sounblaster Emulation for a pseudo Xi-Fi experience, but it isn't actually hardware XiFi, but software emulation).

[Gazaka]

There could be some stability issues on the video card side--the 560 series is not officially supported yet (SE hasn't done any driver testing with it yet, and they have already acknowledged there are issues with them in another thread).

Could also be some issues with your sound card/driver/management software as well (might want to post these details). There have been reports of issues with people who are setup with the Soundblaster software running on chips that are not actually branded as Creative Labs hardware (ie: Realtek can run the Sounblaster Emulation for a pseudo Xi-Fi experience, but it isn't actually hardware XiFi, but software emulation).

Thanks for your reply Raist. If it is the graphics drivers, I hope SE manage to resolve them in the not too distant future. As for the Sound, its the on board sound for the motherboard. Realtek HD Audio I believe.

So in short, if it is the drivers... we are just waiting on SE to test them out and sanction an update. If there is anything else I could do then I'd be game to have a try.

[RAIST]

some have reported resolving some issues with different drivers from Realtek: one such recent post here (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/16047-Strange-freezing-issue-but-only-with-FFXI-(new-graphics-card-driver-issue-)?p=288909&viewfull=1#post288909).

In my case, I once ran into a stuttering issue that wound up being tied to the ATI WMD driver for my video card's HDMI interface (even though I wasn't using it). There was a seperate download for the HDMI sound that I got from ATI that resolved it.

So, hate to say it, but for now you may just need to try different drivers to see if it gets any better. There were some threads on the nVidia forums about FFXI and FFXIV issues at one time, and they had some links to beta's they were working on trying to home in on the problems. Last I recall it boiled down to issues with games using DX9 or older. IDK if they ever found a fix though (haven't looked at them since back in the summer, don't even have the links anymore). Might be worth a shot to search the nVidia forums for FFXI or FFXIV to see if you get any hits there.

Another thing you could try is the age old offline install of DX9 (it's about a 90MB download from Microsoft, iirc). This puts some DLL's and stuff in the system directory that some older games make direct calls to that are sometimes missing on fresh Vista/Win7 installs--and they don't get copied over with the web updates for directX, only when using an offline installer. It may not be your problem here, but it may prevent some future issues to go ahead and run it in case you are missing some of those files.

[bluefluffmonkey]

Drivers are up to date and I don't have any problem with sound or graphics in any other games but see the thing that gets me is .... that I already had the game downloaded on the computer except for a few new expansions so really mine was all updates and then my husband who downloaded a fresh install (Is having the Exact same problem!!) Two different computers both fine infact one is very new with great graphics and sound cards etc... and the only way not to crash is to have the sound turned off in the main config... but FFXI with out sound is sad!!

[Gazaka]

Drivers are up to date and I don't have any problem with sound or graphics in any other games but see the thing that gets me is .... that I already had the game downloaded on the computer except for a few new expansions so really mine was all updates and then my husband who downloaded a fresh install (Is having the Exact same problem!!) Two different computers both fine infact one is very new with great graphics and sound cards etc... and the only way not to crash is to have the sound turned off in the main config... but FFXI with out sound is sad!!

Before a SE rep asks, could you post your computer specs. Copy my layout if needed. Just to see if there is a trend and to help them out. :)

[RAIST]

Also note that this is a 10 year old game, that is designed to run on older software/technology that is more or less getting phased out by Microsoft (DX9 and older are emulated in Vista/Win7--XP is the last OS with native DX8/9 support), and thus by the vendors as well (more effort is put into DX11 drivers for Win7 than any other Windows release now).

In other words, the latest and greatest hardware/software is not always the best for FFXI. Might need to revert to older drivers.

[Gazaka]

Okay time to reply with some interesting findings so far.

I have booted up Windows XP and started fresh install of FFXI. Initially everything went fine until I got a party and started crashing out again. Then decided to remove my antivirus software, and what do you know... never crashed out since! So there is something with Bitdefender Total security 2012 and FFXI that conflicts.

Doing a new test this week with Windows 7 and no antivirus just to see the results. If they are the same as Windows XP then found the cause. The problem then lies in the fact I don't have a secure system. I've already paid for a year subscription for the anti virus and have used them for years. So my question to other users, what AV software you using?

Hope to reply back with results soon and hope this helps anyone interested especially official SE staff. Although since they have not make an official reply.

[RAIST]

there was a recent thread on alla about bitdefender causing issues. You could try creating an exception for the FFXI folder so it doesn't scan it at all. If that doesn't work, might need to contact them for support. Idk if you will be able to get a refund if you aren't going to use it.

As for the products in use, I used to use a corporate edition of Symantec (got it through a previous employer) until it ran out two years ago. Never had trouble with it...idk if the same would go for their Norton branded products. Some of the AVG suites have caused some wonkiness with the firewall in other programs. I'm sure there are some workarounds, but a few friends never could figure it out.

I've been running Avast (free) for two years with no FFXI issues (I set the exception for FFXI folder). There was a brief hiccup once when it was tripping a false-positive on pol.exe after the initial 6.0 update, but it was quickly resolved after people reported it to them. They have a pretty good support team. The initial 5.x install didn't want to play nice with the PowerDVD that came with my blu-ray player, but we narrowed it down too one particular feature and came up with a way to disable/enable it via a batch file when I wanted to watch movies while they worked on the problem. Problem was fixed with the next version update. It's not the greatest, but it often gets top rankings in the reviews. It's caught a lot of sites that my daughter has gone to and stopped malicious elements from loading...so, pleased with it so far. And it's free for home use (just have to respond to a nag once a year to continue use).

***Note: a lot of free AV software will be just that--Anti-Virus, so you will need another option for firewall. Windows has a built-in one, but some struggle to use it. Zone-Alarm free is simple to setup and gets along with FFXI just fine. Even though it is a very simple firewall, it is good enough for most casual users and very easy to manage--it auto-configures for most popular apps, and will prompt you when new programs are detected reaching to the web, or when the versions of an approved program changes. Other options exist--Comodo, etc. but I have no experience with them. But there are free options out there that can and do get the job done.

[Datsik]

Probably way too late to answer this :P
But posting this for ppl looking for a solution
This is what seems to have solved the problem for my crashes since I started using bitdefender


1) Open BitDefender

2) Settings>Antivirus

3) Shield -> Turn off Active virus control

4 :) Antivirus> Exclusions

5 :) Add game folder etc to Excluded files and folders and processes(Also add windower if you happen to use that)

6) Firewall> Application rules add FFXI, windower etc

7) Settings> General> Game List > Add game

9 :) DOne!

10 :) Have fun!