Can't even load the game

[psiphre]

Hello, I am having the following issue: when trying to load the game from the desktop shortcut, i see a small black window about the size of the version checker appear, then disappear less than a second later. there is no error message, there is no log in the event viewer. there is no error file in the game directory!

i have tried this on windows 7 and windows XP sp3. same computer, two different hard drives. all my drivers are up to date.

[Kittra]

A little more information and experimentation would go a long way in helping others understand your problem Psiphre.

You said it crashes when trying to launch from the desktop shortcut? Have you tried going to the installation folder and launching the game directly with ffxivboot or tried to configure the game differently with ffxivconfig?

If I understand correctly, you've tried running it on two different operating systems on the "same" computer but installed on different hard drives. Is the game also installed on both hard drives or just one of the two?
If it's just one, it could be a faulty installation and a reinstall might be necessary.

Have you been able to launch the game before a recent patch(es) or is this your first time attempting to load the game on your system?

Have you launched task manager after attempting to launch the game and looked in the "Processes" tab for ffxivboot.exe *32 or ffxivlogin.exe *32?

I have experienced a problem in the past which is similar to yours in that the updater would load for a split second, disappear, and when the login page "should" appear nothing was there...

By opening up task manager I discovered that--even though it was not showing up in the "Applications" tab--ffxivlogin.exe *32 "was" running, it just wasn't showing up on my screen. By accident I discovered the solution was to do Alt+Tab. For some reason FFXIV will sometimes "minimize" itself on launch and not show up in the taskbar (the bar your START button for windows is located on) but once you Alt+Tab you can select it and it will pop back into existence.

Stupid question: Have you reset your system after the problem pops up?

Lastly, what are your system specs?

[psiphre]

thank you so much for your reply. here goes:
i have tried going to the ffxiv folder and launching ffxiboot.exe directly, it does the same thing. launcher window flashes up and disappears.
i have tried using ffxiv config to change the settings, and that seems to work. i've lowered all settings to the minimum.
the game is installed on both hard drives, from a known good media (i'm trying to install it on a second computer, a laptop to travel with)
this is the first time i've tried to load the game on this computer. i have a desktop that runs it flawlessly.
i can see in task manager and see there is no ffxiv* processes running.
i have tried your suggestion to alt+tab and look for the minimized updater, with no luck.
i have rebooted, it keeps doing the same thing.

the specs on this bad boy are: it's a dell inspiron e1705. 4gb ram, core2 duo at 1.83ghz, radeon x1400 vidya.

[Kittra]

Psiphre, I believe the problem is related to your video card.
Just doing a quick google search I discovered that the maximum memory for the Radeon x1400 is 256MB, which is far lower than the minimum system requirements of 512MB.

I still don't see why this would prevent you from launching the game though. It would be slow as all hell, but you should be able to at least get in-game. The only thing I can think of that may fix your problem is a driver update from ATI.

ATI is notorious for having terrible drivers that behave in strange ways when updated directly, so it is recommended you uninstall your current drivers before updating.

Is it possible that you have a Radeon x1400 with more memory than the average card? My information on it is strictly limited to what I can find through searches, and nothing I've seen so far related to the x1400 suggests that any company ever put out an enhanced version.

One last thing, if you do have a regular, non-enhanced Radeon x1400 with only 256MB of ram... lets just say that a Radeon card with that much ram can barely run FFXI on low settings, let alone a game like FFXIV, which is much more GPU intensive than CPU intensive. =\

[Coldfire]

If the video memory is that low it can actually completely prevent a game from running (the updater uses the game engine and uses alot of resources). Depends on the game though and as we know FFXIV isn't the best piece of code I would suspect that this is the reason.

[psiphre]

thanks both of you for your help. i knew that the computer is under the minimum specs, but i was hoping i'd at least be able to load up the game. looks like it's time to look for an upgrade.