DX/Nvidia Driver crashes. Some causing pink squares that flash

[Asrah]

This is rather ridiculous, actually. Thats normally a voltage related error. If a voltage step is done but suddenly the GPU has nothing to render, causes the core/memory to have an excess of voltage and nothing to do. Suddenly pushing voltage with nothing to calculate is dangerous to the GPU.

Anyways, i cannot play the game for more than a couple moments before a simple DX crash (11000002 error code), or the probably voltage step related error that requires i power down the PC with the PSU switch.

i7-4790k@4.6GHZ
780 TI KingPin@Stock Core/Mem
16GB Ripjawz Skill Z 2133MHZ DDR3 RAM/
Asus Crosshair Formula 7 motherboard
Samsung 840 EVO 500GB SSD

Every other game is fine. I loaded up a couple other MMO's (unnamed for obvious reasons), they ran fine for the half hour or so i played them. Suddenly load up FF14 again, basically instant pink squares upon loading into the world. My PC being OC'd is 100% irrelevant to having the error. Though, i did undo the OC's to do a test run. Same crash types, same short runtime, same pink squares in 1 of 2 tests. Out of the 6 total crashes ive had, 3 have been simple DX error windows and the client closing, other 3 have required i turn the PSU off and back on to regain use of my PC. Thats inexcusable, especially since other community forums have plenty of mentions of this being an issue.

I did a driver wipe and reinstall, ditto for DirectX. This is a client error, not a hardware error. Maybe check to make sure something isnt ending instruction threads where they shouldnt be ended? Make sure something in the client isnt sending broken instruction sets?

Edit: Upon further testing, The Azim Steppes>The Dawn Throne is where it consistently starts crashing. I played for almost 2 hours last night in some dungeons with my FC. Tried going back to The Dawn Throne to do my MSQ stuff. Crashed within 10 minutes. I expect SE to advance me past the MSQ stuff in The Dawn Throne. Im locked out of all further content in the expac because completion of the MSQ is impossible. I cant do other dungeons, i cant raid, i cant craft end game stuff. I cant do 99% of an expac i paid for. Its not my PC, dont even try that. If SE wants, ill livestream running benchmarks which are guaranteed to push my system alot harder than FF14 ever will. Unigine Valley, 3DMark FireStrike, Aida64, even a 30 minute run of Prime95 all return 0 errors, 0 crashes.

[Sloprano]

You might have tried this already during your testing so far:

* If you're running any overlay programs while playing you can try turning these off and see if the crash persists.
* Do you have Windows 10? You can try turning off the Automatic Device Driver Installation before doing a clean reinstall of your Graphics card driver.

Hope some of these help.

[Asrah]

You might have tried this already during your testing so far:

* If you're running any overlay programs while playing you can try turning these off and see if the crash persists.
* Do you have Windows 10? You can try turning off the Automatic Device Driver Installation before doing a clean reinstall of your Graphics card driver.

Hope some of these help.

Uhh nope, none of those would help. Not to mention, if im paying for a game, theres no reason for me to be expected to gut my suite of utilities because "were not able to keep it stable if you use software that has overlays, even if you dont use the overlays." Learn how to program shared resource usage in a way that doesnt greedily abuse clock cycle scheduling.

8.1, i refuse to upgrade to 10. This set of issues got accepted as a valid bug report in the bug report section, so im waiting on their response. Crashes persist with brand new windows 8.1 install with DirectX, Nvidia drivers (353 or 385), .net/general prerequisite software, and FFXIV. Sorry, but this isnt something i can fix on my end. Not to mention, im tempted to file a formal complaint with VISA, since it looks like the game errors might have borked my GPU's VRM. I cant play ANY Games now, cause it just eventually gives the pink squares. Which, this didnt happen at all until i played FF14. Breaking my hardware with crap coding is disrespectful, and will result in a refund request, and request for damage compensation. Just saying. GPU was fine, as im sure hours of NVENC encoding/streaming would have tripped any hardware faults long before casual FF14 play would. Ditto for the benchmarks/stability tests i do once every 6 months just to make sure everything's stable and my hardware isnt failing. I just did those early August 2017. I started playing FF14 late August 2017, and nothing else was installed before the beginning and end of the month. Heck, i was rarely on my PC long enough to do more than watch a couple YT vids before bed/ So yeah, FF14 is at fault. But of course, i bet theyll opt to pass the buck to me and act like anything they can falsely pin the blame on just has to be the culprit, despite me doing PC builds/repair for 13 years. I can tell the difference between software and hardware issues. I even predicted in my FC's discord that the pink square/DX/Driver crashes were cause of thread hangs. Lo and behold, event viewer started spitting this out on the new Win8.1 install:

The description for Event ID 13 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

\Device\Video3
Variable String too Large

the message resource is present but the message is not found in the string/message table

And:

The program ffxiv_dx11.exe version 1.0.0.0 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Action Center control panel.
Process ID: 14dc
Start Time: 01d325c78dfab7ae
Termination Time: 4294967295
Application Path: G:\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\game\ffxiv_dx11.exe
Report Id: 7873cd95-91bb-11e7-82db-54271efbc185
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Those were recorded in event viewer, because i managed to delay the pink square crash from locking up the PC by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL asap when it happened. PC actually managed to recover from the pink squares once, and went back to normal. Device 3? Umm, theres 2 devices on my GPU, not 3. Or 4 if it starts from 0. What exactly is FF14 trying to do? It's a new Win8.1 install. Theres no extra monitor's that have been hooked up to the GPU for that install (i do have an old 19 inch monitor i keep just in case i need to troubleshoot monitor issues or port issues, but i havent used it in months). Additionally, the second error text is definitive proof of a thread hang causing the pink squares. Its certainly FF14 corrupting the driver, which is posing a risk to my hardware. Otherwise, other GPU accelerated software (games) would return the same error if it was hardware related, let alone stability tests and benchmarks. This is getting ridiculous, and i have no qualms going to VISA for a full refund if this isnt fixed ASAP.

Before anyone talks out of their butt, in my state (WA) if a product doesnt function within reasonable expectations of a product, consumer is entitled to a full refund or replacement. So, im likely to contact VISA, and dump this nonsense like the steaming pile its acted like. Its perfectly reasonable to not expect a game to present a risk to my hardware, or have such fatal errors that i must spend days not using sub time i paid for, else i risk damage to my PC. SE is aware of the issue, as its been reported on this and other forums many times. Its negligence, or complete inability to fix the issue, at this point, and i will give no leniency.

Edit: This thread has been screenshotted, and WILL be used as evidence of attempting to cover up my attempts to resolve this reasonably, if the thread is deleted ,if im banned from the forums, or otherwise punished, for mentioning considering a refund and potential damages request! If any of that occurs, the evidence will be sent to VISA and my bank on the next business day! The screenshots of both threads ive posted (including images that show the other thread has been acknowledged as a valid bug report), and all log data that shows FF14 is at fault have been put in a .zip file, on IMGUR, and pastebin! You have been warned SE, dont make this more difficult than it has to be! Im willing to be cool about this so long as my GPU doesnt just up and fully die on me! Ive been wanting to get a 1070, and im willing to ignore damage to my 780 TI KPE if this issue is resolved! Take this opportunity to find a solution, so i can enjoy a game thats been a nice experience so far!

[Xeon]

Ok dont be harsh to forum members. SE can't / wont ever check this board lol.

I popped in a 780ti yesterday to see if I could "duplicate" this error. I was unsuccessful in doing so and it ran decent, even in the steppe. I was hoping to duplicate the error so I could try to fix it but unfortunately I was unable to do so.

[Asrah]

Ok dont be harsh to forum members. SE can't / wont ever check this board lol.

I popped in a 780ti yesterday to see if I could "duplicate" this error. I was unsuccessful in doing so and it ran decent, even in the steppe. I was hoping to duplicate the error so I could try to fix it but unfortunately I was unable to do so.

SE doesnt/cant moderate the forums for their game? Does this game not have a SE ran forum? If i knew SE doesnt have the ability to up and come here and try and bury someone's issue, then i wouldnt have mentioned all that. Wasnt aimed at anyone but SE employees. I appreciate everyone's (including SE's if they do anything) attempts to help.

Youre probably not going to be able to duplicate it. Some of the errors that came up in event viewers in a 2nd new install of 8.1 mentioned texture layout issues causing threads to hang. Those pink squares are kind of a sign that theres suddenly a) too much voltage (1150MV is the same value thats been there since i got the card, i dont add voltage, and i dont OC my GPU) b) too much heat (never goes above 72C when playing FF14, and i have throttle point at 78C instead of 90C) or c) issues with the VRM. Basically, anything that can cause artifacts as a hardware error could cause the pink squares. But, playing games/using software other than FF14 produced NO errors whatsoever. No crashes, no event viewer logs, no pink squares, NOTHING. Then, after trying to troubleshoot FF14 before reporting the issue, it started happening in every other game i tested for comparison, due to the nature of the pink squares thing causing hardware degradation. Ive got more than enough evidence to show that FF14 is directly at fault full stop.

One way or another, whoever develops FF14 needs to fix this. If software errors degenerate hardware, then thats a problem. A problem i cannot ignore, cause itd cost $500+ to get another 780 TI Kingpin used. You cannot get them new anymore. Nor the 980 TI KPE. I cannot excuse a company's negligence being the reason id have to put together $500+ to be able to game AT ALL. Thats far outside of reasonable expectations for the developers of this game. This is nuts, and they honestly should compensate me for it. But, they probably wont. Who would? Gotta make people spend thousands of dollars to sue you over a $500 value replacement GPU! If i send my evidence to them, they wouldnt do the right thing.

[Xeon]

What you're saying isn't out of realm of possibility. But to break a KPE card is something because those cards are built well, very well. Sorry about it breaking. I'd be pissed too, believe me. But unfortunately SE never posts on these forums, at least I've not seen it in the entire 6 years I've been with FFXIV. It stinks. I'll be the first to admit that their support is very lackluster, and their game is one of the poorer designed games out there.

This has basically always been a peer-to-peer forum, unfortunately. I believe that one of the VRMs are faulty, even before you mentioned it. Buying another 780ti KPE isnt worth it, unless you are running a pair in SLi. But if you were using a single card, I wouldn't buy another. There are faster options at $500. Not sure if there's a 1070 or 1080 KPE.

You might be better off having someone replace that VRM than trying to buy another. There are people who would offer a repair service, however, I would never have anything like that repaired by anybody online, especially anybody off eBay. From experience, I know that they mostly dont / cant do what they claim. IE claiming to be able to lift & reball a chip when in reality they're running a a janky hot air rework machine and only attempt to melt the solder to bridge any cracks, and 50% of the time, they will ruin what was a perfectly fixable piece of hardware. I've seen them advertise this on craigslist using a janky setup using a heat gun from home depot. I'd try to see if EVGA might do a repair on it, or maybe find a qualified electronics tech and have them replace the VRM.

I had this exact thing happen on an old 290X, and ironically, it was used for FFXIV 90% of the time.

[Asrah]

What you're saying isn't out of realm of possibility. But to break a KPE card is something because those cards are built well, very well. Sorry about it breaking. I'd be pissed too, believe me. But unfortunately SE never posts on these forums, at least I've not seen it in the entire 6 years I've been with FFXIV. It stinks. I'll be the first to admit that their support is very lackluster, and their game is one of the poorer designed games out there.

This has basically always been a peer-to-peer forum, unfortunately. I believe that one of the VRMs are faulty, even before you mentioned it. Buying another 780ti KPE isnt worth it, unless you are running a pair in SLi. But if you were using a single card, I wouldn't buy another. There are faster options at $500. Not sure if there's a 1070 or 1080 KPE.

You might be better off having someone replace that VRM than trying to buy another. There are people who would offer a repair service, however, I would never have anything like that repaired by anybody online, especially anybody off eBay. From experience, I know that they mostly dont / cant do what they claim. IE claiming to be able to lift & reball a chip when in reality they're running a a janky hot air rework machine and only attempt to melt the solder to bridge any cracks, and 50% of the time, they will ruin what was a perfectly fixable piece of hardware. I've seen them advertise this on craigslist using a janky setup using a heat gun from home depot. I'd try to see if EVGA might do a repair on it, or maybe find a qualified electronics tech and have them replace the VRM.

I had this exact thing happen on an old 290X, and ironically, it was used for FFXIV 90% of the time.

EVGA said it failed their testing. They didnt state what exactly failed what sort of tests, but i figure it was the VRM going wonky due to FF14 crashing the driver. Im not sure what exactly happened, but probably something along the lines of pushing voltage during driver recovery, cooking the VRM (i honestly have no alternative ideas given the context of the situation. Thats a really mild situation to cause a full on VRM fry, especially given no other games i played for 2-12 hours a day ever so much as made it hiccup). Ill receive a replacement of the exact same model on Tuesday, well see how it goes. I got one for $220 off Ebay, and it actually works really well. Its significantly cooler than my original, and in PVP the FPS doesnt drop, like with the original. I actually think the original was just a ticking time-bomb waiting for an error. Still doesnt change that SE could do more to monitor how they program things.

It was either spend $500 on a 1070 SC, or $220 and have SLI. I play at 2560X1080@75HZ. I might upgrade to 144HZ at some point, but honestly i dont play any of the new games right now. Im far more likely to play MMO's than AAA single player titles. Plus, the 780 TI's binned for KPE, that ive had in hand, have stomped on benchmarks posted on youtube and the like. So im not missing anything besides DX12.


Update: Brand new win 8.1 install, verified stable (have not OC'd it) 780 TI KPE, and i just got another system lockup. This time in a PVP match. So, SE, your game messes up a second card, i slap a lawsuit for reparations on you so fast youll need to pick the forms out of your teeth. One more crash im dropping this game like the trash it's acted like, and getting a refund through VISA due to a non functional product for which no possible fix is apparent.

[CappyTan]

friend of mine was having this issue with a dps reader plugin and an enb causing all kinds of random things to happen. even screen blackouts and shaking he describes.
i dont use those cause im noob to pc but i did have discord overlay melt my HUD, as in it looked like my hud items were dripping down the screen.