Teleported, got error, now can't log in!

[Einmimiria]

Thank you for the reply Nevitosh. We apologize for the delay in our response.

It doesn't seem as though you've attempted to reinstall the game. If the error occurs in the same location with different characters, there may be a corrupted install file.

We hope we can be of assistance in helping you enjoy the exciting world of Final Fantasy XIV!

[Nevitosh]

Hello and Good Afternoon Einmimiria and Dynratygus,

Good news! I am finally able to access and play all my characters again so a big THANK YOU! This ticket can be closed. Below is what and how I managed to get fully functional again in case anyone else has these issues or is curious.

After some more experimentation with another character on a completely different Data Center/server, i was able to verify that the problem was most definitely on my computer. After doing some research online I was able to narrow it down and verify I had a corrupt game file (0200000.win32.dat1) in the "C:\Users\Lyle\Games\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\game\sqpack\ffxiv" folder. That specific folder cannot simply be deleted and reinstalled like the 3 ex folders can, I'm guessing because it's the core game files. So I did in fact have to do a full download/uninstall/reinstall of the game. Like I said, I'm in the process of moving, so unfortunately I'm only limited to Hotel WiFi (they do not allow Ethernet plug-ins for some absurd unknown reason), so it took some 14+ hours to download (which is why I was trying everything but that first).*

Even once I got it downloaded and installed, it was still freezing after picking the Data Center and maxing out my Drive R/W until the game shuts itself down, so again back to Google. I found out that there's been an ongoing problem with higher end and overclocked CPUs and/or GPUs causing the game to freeze when it tries to play the opening movie after a fresh install. The 2 workarounds I found were either turn off some CPU cores (which i have no idea about), or go into the FFXIV.cfg file in "C:\Users\Lyle\Documents\My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn" with a txt editor and change the "CutsceneMovieOpening" option from 0 to 1. Once I changed that option, I was able to get past the Data Center selection screen and log into my characters just fine, even the ones that were stuck in North Shroud. After that I tried copying back over my original config folder, and my settings/UI is exactly how I had it and no errors!

So for now everything appears to be working with no issues. I just want to thank you again for your guidance and suggestions, and also for your patience with dealing with my issues and ignorance! I will make sure I leave a favorable comment on the Customer Service Survey if I can. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments, otherwise have a good weekend and stay safe/healthy from the COVID-19.*

V/R
Nevitosh