Random directx error crashes

[rebeka139]

(cross posting on your reddit write up). Spent the past few days testing things.

-Did a Windows memory test > Returned nothing

-Updated BIOS to the most recent official version > Did 2 overnight afk-lower-frames tests at Gridania Aetheryte. First one 90k'd (so unrelated) and the second survived ~10 hours. Did the 7.2 dungeon for expert roulette after the second test, and got the random crash THREE TIMES during the dungeon. Even reset my computer between the 2nd and 3rd crash, but that did nothing.

-Ran a MemTest86, all 14 tests including the experimental DMA test > PASSED, 0 errors...

So, uh, I'm kinda at a loss now. Was kinda hoping my RAM was messed up, but now I'm back to having no clue or lead on what's causing these crashes. Is there a "processortest86" out there? That's the only thing I can think of at the moment.

Error code I'm getting constantly, for reference (time is just related to the current patch):
An unexpected error has occurred. Exiting Final Fantasy XIV. 2025-03-26_14:08

ffxiv_dx11.exe+3E07EF
ffxiv_dx11.exe+3E0731
ffxiv_dx11.exe+5FA114
ffxiv_dx11.exe+6A2671
ffxiv_dx11.exe+5FA00E
ffxiv_dx11.exe+1B7A0D
ffxiv_dx11.exe+1B7CB3
ffxiv_dx11.exe+A1F00

[GoodEater]

Have you tried rolling back your nvidia drivers to 566.36? Driver versions such as 572. Seem to be causing problems with a number of games right now.

[Demon_Giri]

I'm sorry to hear that it didn't fix your issue.

Is your installed RAM what came with the laptop?

I also think it would be worth setting proper power limits for your CPU, as the 13th and 14th are often not set properly by motherboard manufacturers, and some users have written some decently documented posts on these chips being more stable in FFXIV afterward. We can do this temporarily just to test it out, and put it back if you find it doesn't work.

(I'm under the assumption you have an MSI)
in your BIOS, please set the following settings
In the OC section,

OC Explore mode: Expert
Advanced CPU Configuration:
Short Duration Power Limit: 253W
Long Duration Power Limit: 125W
CPU Current Limit: 307

Save and apply settings, boot into windows, then please download and install Intel XTU. You'll need to reboot once it's installed.

In Intel XTU, please change performance core ratio down a notch. So if it's 55x, make it 54x. Hit apply and please reboot one more time, then try your game.

Best of luck,
Giri

[rebeka139]

Yes, it's the stock RAM, I haven't opened up this laptop at all. 2x 16GB part number SK Hynix HMCG78AGBSA092N

Also tried Intel's Processor Diagnostic and Prime95 for 15 mins (said most errors are found within that time). Both of those came back clean

As far as the undervolting, hit a brick wall immediately there. XTU is saying overclocking is disabled, and my BIOS has very limited options. Pictures below.

[Demon_Giri]

Yes, it's the stock RAM, I haven't opened up this laptop at all. 2x 16GB part number SK Hynix HMCG78AGBSA092N

Also tried Intel's Processor Diagnostic and Prime95 for 15 mins (said most errors are found within that time). Both of those came back clean

As far as the undervolting, hit a brick wall immediately there. XTU is saying overclocking is disabled, and my BIOS has very limited options. Pictures below.

Apologies. Looks like MSI laptops have some of their bios hidden. Once you get into the main bios screen, press:

Left Alt + Right Shift + Right Ctrl + F2 all at the same time. This should unhide some of the settings. I'm unsure if you will find the settings I mentioned before in there but you can take a look.

As for Intel XTU, there may be a toggle for "protection" within the hidden menu, but I'm unsure what your specific bios might call it. Could you take a picture of the settings you have if you manage to get that menu open?

Cheers

[rebeka139]

Left Alt + Right Shift + Right Ctrl + F2 all at the same time. This should unhide some of the settings. I'm unsure if you will find the settings I mentioned before in there but you can take a look.
Cheers

Ah, yes, the Super Secret Menu, where my scroll wheel is backwards. Here's an album of various things that seemed relevant: https://imgur.com/a/rebeka139-bios-oCo2t0t

No sign of short duration power limit, long duration, or cpu current limit. Could be because I'm on a laptop and it has to account for AC and DC power? *shrugs* I found the same 56x/52x values that XTU showed, but they weren't editable in BIOS, or at least they wouldn't save. different numbers

I'm currently testing with Turbo Mode disabled. It was the only thing that jumped out at me as something that could cause minor stability issues to FFXIV with 2 Pcores being 56x and the other 6 being 52x.

Also, while writing this, I rechecked XTU advance view. The two watt settings here are referred to as "short duration" and "extended duration" power limit. Would that be the short and long we're looking for?


Edit: Initial results of Turbo mode disabled: CPU is hold temps around 65-70ºC while playing, used to be sporadic between 70 and 93. The cpu cooling fan has NEVER been so quiet while gaming, I can actually hear the gpu fan. Holding steady at 60 fps. gpu has climbed to 90% usage sometimes but mainly in the 60%'s, not sure if it did before, paid more attention to the cpu before this. cpu usage is only at 15% at most. Did the 7.2 dungeon and desert lvl 100 dungeon for roulettes, same as yesterday. 4 crashes total yesterday within that time, 0 today.

I know that's not comprehensive results when it comes to a random crash, but I'm liking them thus far.

[Demon_Giri]

Ah, yes, the Super Secret Menu, where my scroll wheel is backwards. Here's an album of various things that seemed relevant: https://imgur.com/a/rebeka139-bios-oCo2t0t

No sign of short duration power limit, long duration, or cpu current limit. Could be because I'm on a laptop and it has to account for AC and DC power? *shrugs* I found the same 56x/52x values that XTU showed, but they weren't editable in BIOS, or at least they wouldn't save. different numbers

I'm currently testing with Turbo Mode disabled. It was the only thing that jumped out at me as something that could cause minor stability issues to FFXIV with 2 Pcores being 56x and the other 6 being 52x.

Also, while writing this, I rechecked XTU advance view. The two watt settings here are referred to as "short duration" and "extended duration" power limit. Would that be the short and long we're looking for?


Edit: Initial results of Turbo mode disabled: CPU is hold temps around 65-70ºC while playing, used to be sporadic between 70 and 93. The cpu cooling fan has NEVER been so quiet while gaming, I can actually hear the gpu fan. Holding steady at 60 fps. gpu has climbed to 90% usage sometimes but mainly in the 60%'s, not sure if it did before, paid more attention to the cpu before this. cpu usage is only at 15% at most. Did the 7.2 dungeon and desert lvl 100 dungeon for roulettes, same as yesterday. 4 crashes total yesterday within that time, 0 today.

I know that's not comprehensive results when it comes to a random crash, but I'm liking them thus far.

I'd recommend keeping Turbo Mode enabled. That's what allows your processor to increase operating speed when it's given more demanding tasks. Without it, your CPU will only run at base speed at all times. It may remove your crashing, as your CPU will be running extremely-throttled, but it would be a very heavy-handed way to do it. At the very least, I would try looking in the BIOS again and seeing if those core ratios are still what you set them to/what they originally were. I would listen to what the BIOS says they are over what Intel XTU says they are. Intel XTU does change BIOS values, but can only read/write what the BIOS/MOBO allows it, so I'd defer to the BIOS first.

To answer a few questions:

In your imgur album, the third picture from the bottom, "Power Limit 1" and "Power Limit 2" are the short duration and long duration power limits. PL1 being the long duration. Also, yes, these correlate with "Turbo Boost Short Power Max" and the "Turbo Boost Power Max" settings in Intel XTU.

No relation to AC/DC power as far as available settings go. Yes, your laptop has an AC to DC adapter. The power supply in a desktop PC does the same thing. Assuming you don't have some kind of weird faulty power problem, nothing AC should ever be touching your PC or anyone else's. Pretty much all consumer-level electronics run on DC and have some kind of adapter either in the cable or built into the device itself. Available BIOS options will be largely based on what the particular motherboard manufacturer allows you.

Additionally, I have to apologize. I misread your processor model originally, so please ignore the original power limits and current limit I provided you. To avoid severely gimping your processor by turning turbo completely off, but still gain stability since the crashing does seem to be related to how the CPU is running, I'd suggest turning Turbo Mode back on, and then boot into Windows and set the following values in Intel XTU:

Turbo Boost Short Power Max: 157 W
Turbo Boost Power Max: 157 W

157W is the official "Maximum Turbo Power" wattage per Intel's official site for your processor.

We don't want the processor pulling more power than it should for turbo, sacrificing stability in the process, so lets try a little more conservative/official wattage for turbo, based on Intel's specs. We also don't necessarily want to run it LOWER than 157W for extended periods of turbo, so that's why we're setting both short and long duration turbo to the same value. It was already set to 220 on both before anyway.

I did grab a laptop of mine and was able to dig more into the MSI bios you have, myself, to get a little better idea of where things are and what they're named, but I think we might be able to do much of what we want from Intel XTU, which should write to the BIOS settings when you hit Apply anyway. You will just need to re-enable Turbo from in the BIOS.

So, just for clarification, I'd suggest:

- Boot into BIOS, re-enable turbo mode, check to see if P-Core Ratios are still what you set them to before/what they originally were. There should be two "blocks" of settings for those. One is labeled "current settings" at the top, the second "block" of values is where you would adjust them, I believe.
- Boot into Windows, Open Intel XTU, Set:
Turbo Boost Short Power Max: 157W
Turbo Boost Power Max: 157W
- Hit Apply in Intel XTU
- Reboot into BIOS, check the Power & Performance>CPU - Power Management Control>Configure Turbo Options menu to see if PL 1 and PL 2 match the 157W you just set in Intel XTU, just to make sure they took
- Reboot into Windows and try your game for a while. Monitor temps if you'd like

Hope that helps clear some things up. Let me know if you run into a snag in that process,
Giri

[rebeka139]

You don't have to apologize, if it weren't for you I probably wouldn't have found the turbo mode on/off switch for another month or two. The fact that there's an actual chance of a light at the end of the tunnel is such a relief.

I did turn off Turbo mode mainly as a heavy handed find the source of the problem type move. It worked, but now I get ~45fps in populated areas and frontline. Still running way colder though, was peaceful without the fans going brrrrrrrr 100% of the time. Turning turbo back on and changing the voltage in XTU was going to be my next test if I didn't hear back, so good to see I was heading the right direction.

If you don't hear from me for a bit, no news is good news. I'll definitely update here and the reddit post with results, especially if sharing this info helps even one other person with this issue.

Edit: welp, immediate results of still crashing the game. Same call stacks. Tried lowering the wattage to 150 in XTU and logging back into the Frontline I was in. Game crashed a second time, so two crashes within a 15 min match. Temps were still roughly what they were from before today's testing, peaking around 93C and fans going full blast even when not near large groups. I know undervolting too much can cause damage if it goes too low, but is there a good place to start with limiting the wattage further?

[warhammer40k]

I just got this today after logging out to go make some food and then trying to log back in and got that error message. Been playing since ARR opening and never had any issues like this.

[warhammer40k]

Why is all this stuff happening all of a sudden? I was online and playing the game and then logged out to go make lunch and then tried to log back in and this error message appeared and now I can't log in. WTF is going on with SE?