Random crashing - extremely often

Details:
Random crashes. I just started not long (2-3days), and been only around in Gridania. Few symptoms :-
1) Crash happens with APPCRASH - Detailed log will be posted later.
2) Computer just reboots halfway playing. On one occassion, I was monitoring both CPU / GPU temp and GPU is at 80c and CPU at 61c when the system just rebooted.

Steps:
Completely random. No trends observed.

Date & Time:
Random as well.

Frequency:
Once in about 20-30 minutes of running around, or even staying put in one place (idling).

Platform/OS:
Windows 7 64-bit

PC Manufacturer & Model Number:
Homebuilt

Graphics Card:
ASUS HD 6990

--------------------------

Things I've tried on my side :-
- Did a stress test on GPU / CPU both reaching 90 degrees without problems observed. (Stress test done on furmark / prime95, to rule out high temp / power instabilities.)
- Tried multiple settings on FFXIVConfig (Window or fullscreen) still the same.
- Disabled DWM - still the same.
- Reinstalling the client.
- Reinstalling the OS.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: ffxivgame.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 4e2d9aed
Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.1.7600.16695
Fault Module Timestamp: 4cc7ab86
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00022262
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1041
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

Read our privacy statement online:
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If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

Other misc info :-
Display Mode : Fullscreen
Window size : 1920x1080
Multisampling : 8x CSAA
General Drawing : 8
Background Drawing : 5
Shadowdetail : High
AO : OFF
DoF : ON
Texture Q : High
Texture Filtering : High

Hmmm, might be useful to mention also I'm on RAID 0 on SSD....

c0000005 - most common cause is a driver issue with video. Most common cause with FF14 is overheating GPU. I do not know what the temperature threshold of the ATI GPUs are, however 90c sounds a little warm (my nVidia runs at 69-72c on those same settings). That would be me guess as a cause without knowing what the actual operating temps for the GPU are.

The HD6990 is usually pretty hot. It's actually highly recommended to use watercooling with that thing. The spec goes a bit higher than 100°C I think but personally I would never let any part of my PC get that hot...

90c was when running furmark... and the reason is to test that 90c isn't enough to kill the card or motherboard. FFXIV only hits 80c, so ruling out temp problem. That's my intention.

Oh btw futuremark benchs won't stress out your GPU. They just got trashy benchmarks and no real stresstests. You can be assured that ffxiv gets your HD6990 way above 90°C. I would recommend getting something that logs the temperature into a file, because after a reboot the temperature will already have gone down by ~20%.
Another thing I would check is if you have the latest Catalyst Application Profiles.

Thanks for the responses...

Latest Catalys Application Profiles ? Can I assume having 11.7 driver should already have that updated ? or is it separate ?

Thanks again!

It's a seperate download on the same page.

Tried it, didn't help much though....

Crashed 2 times within this 10-15 minutes. Once during a levequest. Another when I was about to name my retainer... maybe she didn't like the name I'm giving her...

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: ffxivgame.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 4e2d9aed
Fault Module Name: ffxivgame.exe
Fault Module Version: 1.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 4e2d9aed
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 007bb0ce
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1041
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

Read our privacy statement online:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?link...8&clcid=0x0409

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt
------------------

Thanks for helping anyways :) more suggestions will be appreciated.

On in addition to that, I was troubleshooting the temp of the card when doing window mode, and have my GPU-Z next to the client so I have runtime monitoring on that. It was 80c when it crashed :)

Just wondering if any mods care to check on their Technical Support forums ? Or just leave the players to resolve problems themselves ?

You should really install a tool that logs your GPU temperature while playing (like rivatuner or SpeedFan). Or just manually set the fan speed to 60% and see if it lasts longer :P
The max temp seems to be 110°C but above 100°C for a longer period can already damage some parts(especially the RAM which is not specified for those temperatures). It's kinda silly how the resellers lower the average fan speed just so it's less noisy and sells better -_-

For the sake of testing :)
I've lowered all the settings on graphics by 1 level on each option and the got a GPU temp log as well. It crashed on me after about less than 20 minutes. My GPU temp maxed at 76.5c when it happened and fan is constant at 30%. All the while my CPU temp never exceeded 65c.

Last reading on GPU-Z log
Date 2011-08-05 23:29:05
GPU Core Clock [MHz] 830.0
GPU Memory Clock [MHz] 1250.0
GPU Temperature [ｰC] 72.0
Fan Speed [%] 30
GPU Load [%] 64
Fan Speed [RPM] 2198
GPU Temp. #1 [ｰC] 72.5
GPU Temp. #2 [ｰC] 74.5
GPU Temp. #3 [ｰC] 76.5
VDDC [V] 1.1200
VReg Temperature [ｰC] 64.7

..... no, not temp issue...

I guess your PSU also has more than enough power. Did you try it in windowed mode or without crossfire yet?

Yes... PSU at 1000W... without Crossfire ? Hmm, not sure about that, and I assume you mean to shut off one of the GPU ? Hmmm not sure how to do that yet, might give it a try when I know how :)

Currently running OCCT testing stability of the card, 0 errors after 30 minutes, running at temp 90c - yes, hot... but FFXIV crashed on me in less than 20 minutes at 80c.... I would want to believe it's the card's stability problem so I can get a warranty quick, but doesn't seem so.... :(

The problem with any bench marking is that FF14 is poorly written and poorly optimized, and therefore has issues where others do not. So the typical stuff:
Make sure you have latest drivers and profiles for the game, yada yada and do a clean install of your video drivers.
Disable Crossfire if you have it, see if that helps (Crossfire especially seems to have issues with this game, more so in windowed mode if I understand it correctly.)
Possible I suppose that there are corrupted game files. Go to your Documents / My Games / Final Fantasy XIV / delete everything. Run the configuration program and set all of your graphics options etc. again (this will re-create the necessary files).
Uhm... Is your GPU or your processor or overclocked? If so, turn off any over clocking. I can give you the technical reasons why this is a good idea in general, and why its a great idea in particular for FF14 if you like, but the short version is 14 creates instabilities in OC'd systems that won't appear in other programs because 14 is poorly written.
Lets see... May sure you don't have any other Direct X programs running - its probably not that (because you aren't getting a direct-x error) but there are some DX capable programs that cause memory/driver issues with 14 (for example, Adobe Flash, the current version of which is extremely buggy to begin with and causes issues with 14).
Try it all without borderless window scripts and dual-box windowers if you use them (Evo, etc.)

See if that helps.

Done with latest drivers, few versions in fact, but nothing helped.
No crossfire, but 6990 is on dual GPU, not even sure how to disable one gpu - as said in previous post. So I'll leave it as it is.

Did the recreation of config/user files etc, crashing still...

And no the system's not overclocked.

I don't have a browser running when launching FFXIV so I doubt anything on my desktop will be using flash.

Nope, not trying something funny like windower or dual boxing ( I have problems running one, won't even dream of getting 2 of them now ).

Well I do hope 'they' see all these posts about 'crashes' in their official forum and address them :) in fact that was my intention of posting on official forums where it states "Technical Support". But thanks to all other members here for the advices though....

Do me a favor; use the FF14 Config program and look for the option to copy your specs to the clipboard, copy them here (I suggest using that because it provides a lot of extra info); maybe we'll see something that we missed before.

You either need RadeonPro to disable Catalyst A.I. or run the game in windowed mode to not use crossfire(at least in theory).

There ya go - I've cut 'Installed applications' as I don't think it has anything to do with it....
Also, there are some errors on this reporting, as I've disabled Virtual mem / page file - they should be 0.

-=-=-=-=-=-=- System Information -=-=-=-=-=-=-

Operating System Microsoft Windows 7　Ultimate Edition　64bit　(build 7600)
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz
Number of Processors Logical Core Count 8 Physical Core Count 4
BIOS BIOS Date: 02/05/10 19:13:52 Ver: 08.00.10
Language 日本語 (Regional Setting: 日本語)
Physical Memory 8168.543MB
Virtual Memory 2047.875MB
Page File 8166.688MB
Storage C:\ Hard Disk Drive Total Disk Space 111.696GB Free Disk Space 76.790GB
Storage D:\ Hard Disk Drive Total Disk Space 468.750GB Free Disk Space 405.268GB
Storage E:\ Hard Disk Drive Total Disk Space 462.760GB Free Disk Space 19.294GB
Storage F:\ Hard Disk Drive Total Disk Space 976.562GB Free Disk Space 470.358GB
Storage G:\ Hard Disk Drive Total Disk Space 886.452GB Free Disk Space 728.113GB
DirectX Version DirectX 11
Graphic Device(s) ASUS EAH6990 Series
├Device \\.\DISPLAY1
├Chip ATI display adapter (0x671D)
├Maker ATI Technologies Inc.
├Video Memory 4036.945 MB
├Shared Video Memory 3828.271 MB
├DAC Type Internal DAC(400MHz)
├Display Mode 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
├Driver aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx32,aticfx32,aticfx32,atiumd64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atiumdag,atidxx32,atidxx32,atiumdva,atiumd6a.cap,atitmm64.dll
├Driver Version 8.17.0010.1072
├Driver Date 2011/04/27 12:07:04
├Driver Language English
├Vertex Shader 3.0
├Pixel Shader 3.0
└Vertex Texture Supported
Sound Device(s) Speakers (SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio)
├Device ID {845A519F-19B7-4B3F-91F3-E456A354E61B}
├Device Name P17.sys
├Driver Version 5.12.0001.2020
├Driver Language English
└Driver Date 2009/10/16 16:44:56
Sound Device(s) Digital Audio Interface (SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio)
├Device ID {59BB7613-6CF6-4F0A-8212-906A3C9A5A91}
├Device Name P17.sys
├Driver Version 5.12.0001.2020
├Driver Language English
└Driver Date 2009/10/16 16:44:56
Input Device(s) {6F1D2B60-D5A0-11CF-BFC7444553540000}
├Name Mouse
└Notes Axis 3 Button 7 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {6F1D2B61-D5A0-11CF-BFC7444553540000}
├Name Keyboard
└Notes Axis 0 Button 128 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {8FEAC8F0-BDF9-11E0-8003444553540000}
├Name Razer Imperator
└Notes Axis 0 Button 573 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {8FEAF000-BDF9-11E0-8004444553540000}
├Name Razer Imperator
└Notes Axis 0 Button 3 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {8FEAF000-BDF9-11E0-8005444553540000}
├Name AlienFx Backlight
└Notes Axis 0 Button 0 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {8FEAF000-BDF9-11E0-8006444553540000}
├Name AlienFx Backlight
└Notes Axis 0 Button 0 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {8FEB1710-BDF9-11E0-8007444553540000}
├Name AlienFx Backlight
└Notes Axis 0 Button 0 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {8FEB1710-BDF9-11E0-8008444553540000}
├Name Alienware TactX ? Keyboard
└Notes Axis 0 Button 7 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {8FEB1710-BDF9-11E0-8009444553540000}
├Name Alienware TactX ? Keyboard
└Notes Axis 0 Button 0 Field of View 0

-=-=-=-=-=-=- Application Information -=-=-=-=-=-=-

AMD:CCC-AEMCapturingWindow
Alienware TactX? Keyboard CI
My Games
Random crashing - extremely often - Page 2 - Windows Internet Explorer
TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.4
Unigine Heaven DX11 Benchmark 2.5 (Basic Edition)
Unigine engine http://unigine.com/

-=-=-=-=-=-=- Proccess Information -=-=-=-=-=-=-

C:\Program Files (x86)\ASUS\AI Suite II\ASUS Mobilink\Simulator\AsShellProcess.exe 00000BAC
C:\Program Files (x86)\Creative\Volume Panel\VolPanlu.exe 000008C0
C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield Installation Information\{E6931688-DA2B-4E16-8539-3D323D69C677}\AiChargerPlus.exe 00000BD4
C:\Program Files (x86)\Razer\Imperator\RazerImperatorTray.exe 0000094C
C:\Program Files (x86)\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XIV\ffxivconfig.exe 000012D0
C:\Program Files (x86)\Unigine\Heaven DX11 Benchmark 2.5\Unigine.exe 000009F4
C:\Program Files\Alienware\Command Center\AlienFXHook32Mngr.exe 00000B70
C:\Program Files\Alienware\Command Center\AlienwareAlienFXController.exe 00000AA8
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\rundll32.exe 00000BFC

Did some further fact findings, and it could be correct on the pagefile / virtual memory, it can never be removed entirely in Windows.... Oh well.. :)

Also saw this on In-game bug forum
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...rash!!-STILL!!

Should mean at least dev team's looking into it :)

Hmm... well that first error is it crashing on a windows component...specifically part of the kernel... I recommend running microsoft memory test tool on your PC. Almost sounds to me like you may possible have bad ram...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aerycat

Did some further fact findings, and it could be correct on the pagefile / virtual memory, it can never be removed entirely in Windows.... Oh well.. :)

---

You can indeed disable all page files and turn off virtual memory management by doing that. However this will always cause errors as some programs explicitly require a page file (not sure why... pretty silly). And 8GB is not enough nowadays to be on the safe side when turning vmm off. You can get rid of the hibernation file though if you want to save some disk space :P
Windows should tell you the ideal size of the page file but I think usually it's RAM*1.5

Well I did a memtest86+ scan for over 4 hours, 3 passes, 0 errors.

And well, ffxiv also crashed when I had page file set previously. And constant monitoring on RAM utilization did not exceed 50% or even lesser than that, so 8GB is on the safe side nowadays, at least not easily filled running 1 FFXIV. I don't multitask all that much also :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aerycat

And well, ffxiv also crashed when I had page file set previously. And constant monitoring on RAM utilization did not exceed 50% or even lesser than that, so 8GB is on the safe side nowadays, at least not easily filled running 1 FFXIV. I don't multitask all that much also :)

---

Yah, don't worry about ffxiv. That pile of fail code can't even use more than 1.8GB. What I'm talking about is stuff like Visual Studio, CAD, Crysis or video editing software :P
After windows starts my usage is more than 2GB already, then another 200MB for browser, a few hundred megz for VS and if I want to play a game then while still having that stuff open im way beyond 6GB xD

been haveing the very same problem since the last patch everywhere i go i crash about 4 to 5 times a day beofr the update evrything was fine now i get the msg FFxiv has stoppe workeing blaha blah blah befor i would play for hrs no problme now its every dam time cant eve play in peac wtf is going on man really they need to resolved that shit at rank 26 from 1 to 23 it wa fine now i crash all the time lobby server has encounterd an error 13001 status 3102 and the the rest of the time i get no status 0

AlienFXHook32Mngr.exe intrigued me, for several reasons. It seems that this is a program used to overlay alternate desktops on windows through a method known as hooking.

Furthermore, it seems that the Alienware hooking software has a history of causing some issues similar (not identical) to what you are experiencing (including the sort of driver crash that -can- cause the error you are receiving.)

Sooo... I would suggest a test. Try turning off the overlay program (uninstall it completely if you don't use it) and see what happens. I wouldn't go so far as to say this is a slam dunk, but I don't think that is is a long-shot either.

I would be happy to explain the technical reasons of what made me suspicious, what hooking is, and what I found about the software on Google if you would like. Hopefully this will solve the problem!

grumpy : I totally understand why you chose your name Grumpy Ironlung :) for me, I'm out of breath reading your post, but anyway, hope things will get better for ya..

Origamikitsune : will try that later, I think killing off the processes should be good enough....And I'll look up the answers and see :) Thanks for the suggestion~!

Hi all,

Just to update on this that the problem is finally found ( I hope.... umm... so far so good ).

I went into bios and set all my ram timings to one step lower. I haven't been crashing since then. Haven't been to Gridania yet though, but have been running around doing those Firefall quests etc Thanalan/Uldah/Coerthas. Currently on 4xMSAA, GDQ 8, Background 5, Shadow highest and both Texture & filter at high.

My ram :-
Corsair 8GB Vengeance Dual Channel Kit, 1600MHz, 8-8-8-24

But I had to set in bios 9-9-9-24 1600MHz.... I don't know if someone else using the same type of RAM as I do, maybe you can try that, or I'm curious what are all your RAM timings like, anyone with 8-8-8-24 as well ? :) And I've pretty much reverted everything else to default since I bought the system....Going to gradually bump up other settings (texture filter and AA)...

Glad you found the cause. Overclocking your system is always a stability game in itself.
My system goes down when my VREG overheats :)

Can also try to increase the RAM voltages, but don't come look for me if that fries your chips.

It's not overclocked. I'm not into overclocking :) and that setting is stock setting. Memtest86 passes it. FFXIV apparently - somehow - not understanding why - decided not to agree. So I don't have a definitive answer, but until I can prove that it's a RAM problem using Memtest86, I'll have to stick with the setting of 9-9-9-24... Oh well.... :)

Great info.
I am now troubleshooting my system for similar reasons.
10-20 min into game the "Nvidia Kernel Mode Drive Stopped working and restarted" message.
Not a driver issue since new or old drivers have been checked.
Not a game settings issue since theyve been toned down.
Temp readings are low.
2nd GPU deactivated doesnt change problem.
The video cards are working well. my system is conservatively overclocked though.
I didnt think on checking memory settings. Thatll be my next tweak if it hangs again.

well underclocking the memory is not solving the problem. however over clocking it seems to worsen it.
maybe i fried it to hell. ill try a few other tricks before buying new dimms.