Rare bug? FFXI crashes often since May 23rd. Update

[Aselin]

Situation:

• Re-activated FFXI account at the end of April.
• Re-installed FFXI to two computers-- a netbook with Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit and a desktop PC with Windows 8 Pro 64-bit.
• Begins crashing often on BOTH COMPUTERS post-May 23rd. Update.

Points where it crashes: (Any ONE of the following will crash it.)

• Between zones. Usually after two or four zones it crashes.
• Activating a macro.
• Opening the Treasure Pool.
• Expanding chat window.
• Selecting another player character.
• Selecting a choice in a menu.

Possible solutions I've tried that DID NOT fix it:

• Re-install FFXI and PlayOnline entirely.
• Re-install PlayOnline Viewer to another directory.
• Re-install FFXI to another directory.
• Reducing settings-- disabling mip-mapping, bump mapping, environmental animation, reducing background, overlay and menu resolution, disabling sounds.
• Running PlayOnline.exe as Administrator does not work.
• Running PlayOnline.exe under Windows 7 or Windows XP Pro SP3 Compatibility Mode DOES NOT WORK EITHER!
• Disabling Graphics Stabilization has no effect on the crashes. Crashes with or without it enabled.
• Re-installing Windows 8 Pro and not installing ANY Windows Updates, and having only UPDATED drivers and FFXI/PlayOnline Viewer installed, the game still crashes.
• Updating drivers and installing Windows Updates for Windows 7 on the netbook did not fix it either. Netbook crashes the exact same way as it does on the desktop PC.
• Updating DirectX, Visual C++ Redistributable, and .NET Framework 3.5 and 4 did not fix it.

Solution I have not tried yet: Re-installing Windows XP Pro 32-bit on both computers.

NOTE: Both installations of FFXI and PlayOnline ran PERFECTLY before May 23rd. Update and has had no issues between May 23rd and since I re-installed it in the end April.

I DO NOT WANT TO RE-INSTALL WINDOWS XP JUST FOR THIS GAME. I would really like this fixed soon because it's getting on my nerves now!

Both Windows 7 and Windows 8 report the same error in Event Viewer:

Faulting application name: pol.exe, version: 1.18.13.0, time stamp: 0x4e3bcddc
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x6d652e3c
Faulting process id: 0xfe4
Faulting application start time: 0x01ce777922d96c27
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\PlayOnlineViewer\pol.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 8dfe8ea4-e36c-11e2-be71-001b2198408b
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Faulting application name: pol.exe, version: 1.18.13.0, time stamp: 0x4e3bcddc
Faulting module name: FFXiMain.dll, version: 3.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x51825a32
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0014c9ad
Faulting process id: 0x44c
Faulting application start time: 0x01ce77449e8d606e
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\PlayOnlineViewer\pol.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XI\FFXiMain.dll
Report Id: 1e47919e-e36a-11e2-be71-001b2198408b
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID: