[PS3] Immense issues, lucky if client loads, unplayable - seeking advice
For the last 3 days I've been struck with a crippling problem, and it's impossible to play the game. It could be several things for all I know (PS3 itself, PSN, ISP, FFXIV servers), but it's very troubling. It's somewhat similar to the almost-permanent-90k's some people have been batting around, but I'll go into as much detail as possible. I've sent Square a support ticket but am still awaiting a response. This is a bit long, but please bear with me. I will add a tl;dr but there's a lot to go over.
It started on 24/9, around peak time. I got 90k'd, thought nothing of it as it tends to happen, but I could not play the game afterwards. I could select my character and reach the loading screen okay, but as soon as I appeared in the game everything else except my character would be frozen - as happens when you get DC'd - and I'd be kicked off with the 90k error after a few seconds.
From here it got bizarre though. Suddenly it would seem like a dice roll in being able to sign in to PSN. Sometimes it would work, other times I would get the error message 80710B23. When I could sign, I could only get as far as I described above, where the game freaks out as soon as the actual gameplay begins. This happened then, and the day after on the 25th. Note that while there was a PSN maintenance on the 25th this problem occurred the day before also - and today, the day after.
And speaking of today, it's a lot worse. I was able to play for a few hours, then at around 16:00 (BST) it struck again, same issue. However, in addition the client seems screwy. When I can actually sign in to PSN. Sometimes upon loading it I will receive a message saying something close to: "Unable to run FFXIV:ARR. Please register your product code". Which of course makes no sense considering I did so when I bought the game and have been playing all month with nothing too major. It's impossible to reach the client when this happens. Sometimes the screen will remain black with the client music playing, and only the mouse pointer and PS3 loading dial in the corner. Sometimes the client will load but extremely slowly, and it might not make it past me clicking "log in" or "play". Sometimes upon choosing the client the screen will remain black, and the controller doesn't respond to quit the game. The PS3 power button also will not force it to switch off, so I have no choice but to pull the plug.
If I make it past THAT, I either get the original case of everything being frozen in-game, or if I'm very lucky, I can play for about 2 minutes before it goes back to kicking me - though that is extremely rare.
My other devices such as laptop have no connection issues. I've tried reinstalling the client but that didn't change anything. Considering all of this dice-rolling can begin as soon as signing in to PSN, I'm assuming it could be a PS3 problem but I really don't know. My PS3 has been in very good health until this started. It's one of the slims, and I doubt it'd start failing on me but who knows. I'm not too clued up on the entire world of internet stuff, so I don't know if it could be ISP interference either. From what I know it shouldn't affect being able to sign in to PSN - but it may not be coincidence this happens around peak times 16:00-00:00 and it IS near the end of the month. Again, this isn't something I'm too knowledgeable about.
An other thing: sometimes upon choosing to Turn Off the PS3 normally from the home menu, it will cut to black as it should, but then will beep 3 times - which usually happens when you're forcing it off. And I'll get the system restore check on startup even though it was switched off correctly with nothing running in the background.
I think I covered everything. I have no idea of the cause, and a couple of my friends are stumped too. Given the hurdles it seems less likely that it's a problem with Square Enix / the servers and perhaps my PS3, but I've heard a handful of similar reports, such as the "register your code" message. But not this multitude of errors, though they likely have the same root cause. Desperately seeking some advice and help here :P
tl;dr (as best I can condense): At around peak times, game cuts out on log-in, sometimes PSN sign in fails, sometimes client fails to load, black screens, error messages asking me to enter product codes, PS3 acting screwy since it started