Strange freezing issue, but only with FFXI (new graphics card, driver issue?)

[Zipinferno]

Been using a HD6970 since October and I've been having the same freezing problem. I haven't found any fixes for it and the only way I can play for a while without freezing is to turn off all effects but I still get random freezes.

[CaptCaveman]

Hello,

I too am experiencing the same issues that everyone else is having and with similar setups. I am running a 6970 Radeon as well, and have the exact same symptoms. Its sad that SE's stance is 'well we dont support ATI's and its your hardware problem.' There are basically two chipset options in the video card world and they chose not to support one of them????

This is one of the worst experiences of online support from any modern company I've had to endure. First destrier beret, now unsupported hardware (what year is this?) and now to find out that they basically don't have the online resources to support their game. From talking with past players they are basically notorious for their lack of support which makes perfect sense because they used to make offline / single player games pretty exclusively.

Lesson learned.

[RAIST]

It's not that they don't support ATI...the older cards and drivers work just fine. It's more an issue with the shift that Microsoft took in API's with Window Vista/7. These newer OS's are built around DX10/11, and anything older runs via a sort of emulation. The newer cards and their drivers are built around this API as well (since late 2009, both ATI and nVidia have been built with full DX11 native support).

The issue lies in the drivers for the newer cards (post Q3 2009) and DirectX in Windows Vista/7 not being able to work well with the archaic DX 8.1/9 half-breed that is FFXI. Other older games have suffered issues as well because they are using these older interfaces. Need to go to the card's manufacturer to get drivers fixed.

[CaptCaveman]

So will compatibility mode do anything for this kind of issue? Its really hampering my ability to play and downgrading my card is not really an option for me.

[RAIST]

A quick search on the ATI support site gave me a hit on the 12.1 drivers...supposed to have a fix for Windows7 users of DX9 mode in Dirt2, amongst other fixes. Perhaps it will address issues for FFXI as well.

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles...ersion121.aspx

Ulitmateily, this is where you will need to go for help on these newer cards--the card manufacturers need to fix their drivers for DirectX backwards compatability in Vista/Win7. That is the problem, how the drivers are working with the older DirectX.

All SE can really do to remedy that is to change how they implemented DirectX...as in a rewrite of the wrapper. Don't expect that to happen anytime soon. It MIGHT be tweaked when SoA comes out, who knows...at any rate it would be a big change and will take some time to pull off, if they plan to do it.

[Enoah35]

I am also one who has HD6970 with very similar PC configuration as the original poster.
Alienware Aurora R2
I7 860 @ 2.8 Ghz
8GB DDR3 Ram
Windows 7 64 bits

Strange that before I came back was using HD 5800 series and instead of complete freeze, PoL simply crashed with the Display driver stopped responding error. I have so far tried a few methods with no avail:

- Disable HTT from Bios
- Disable Weather/Shadow from ingame
- Disabled all effects from game
- Tested Drivers 12.4, 12.6, 12.7beta, 11.2(!), it all gave same results
- Updated Realtek HD audio drivers to the latest.
- DIsabled Realtek HD audio, and used HDMI cable instead of VGA
- Changed CCC configuration to max compatibility and disabled AMD Overdrive

None of these worked. The freezes are also quite random and freezes on random areas. Someimes it froze in the first 30minuites, others lasted for 5 hours. Sometimes no issue for 6 hours straight. Strange thing is that my 2nd PC is also running on i7 with Radeon card. However its a laptop. It has HD 4870 and using a very very old driver, I think its catalyst 8 something. Now its not even funny have to roll back that far and I don't think those drivers are compatible with the 6000 series and up.

Lastly, the game doesn't seem to freeze when you are idle. It happened to me when I was moving around, fighting etc. at this rate it can and probably will damage my rig and I will probably be forced to quit the game because of it. It may not be an issue today, but with the new expansions and more people upgrading their PC it will be a problem for future players if SE doesn't do anything. (Doubt AMD will move since its one game out of many)

[CaptCaveman]

Enoah, I am experiencing the same exact things as you with a similar system, tho I am running AMD hardware. I've tried a lot of your troubleshooting steps as well. I submitted a report to AMD via their website and I encourage you to do the same, the more reports the better!!! This will help other games and gamers out greatly if there is enough demand! Submit your report here - http://www.amdsurveys.com/se.ashx?s=5A1E27D20B2F3EC4

I filled out mine as completely as possible and I encourage you to do the same!

[Enoah35]

Yes I already done my feedback a while back. Will probably do again. Would like to ask people what cards are stable since it seems both Geforce and ATI cards are experiencing issues, specially those cards that are newer than what Square Enix got on their compatibility list. I had to pull out my old PC to play it since at least I don't want to waste my subscription.

[Continuity]

Yes I already done my feedback a while back. Will probably do again. Would like to ask people what cards are stable since it seems both Geforce and ATI cards are experiencing issues, specially those cards that are newer than what Square Enix got on their compatibility list. I had to pull out my old PC to play it since at least I don't want to waste my subscription.

The game runs perfectly on my AMD Radeon 7970, using driver 12.7 beta. A bit overkill for most, but it does show that modern cards and modern drivers aren't necessarily the issue in and of themselves.

[Fadnog]

I'm getting a similar problem. My game will randomly completely freeze my computer while playing. My game was working perfectly fine for about a month and I only started to get this problem today. Any ideas what could have caused this?