Freeze/Crash & BSOD issues

[Donoho]

https://www.google.com/#q=NVIDIA+GeF...screen+in+game

looks like the 500 series had some issues with this a while back. Some of the suggestions I saw were to roll back to older drivers (290 series mentioned a few times).

I was once getting weirdness with my laptop's 670MX (black screen and gold vertical lines flashing in). Oddly enough, it only stopped after updating the package for my sound to resolve an issue with the little subwoofer underneath it cutting in and out. So, perhaps a full BIOS and driver checkup from the manufacturer may be in order if you haven't done the whole works yet.

It's an Alienware M18x purchased in 2012 specifically for gaming and has had zero issues until 2.1. It was spec'd to play anything on max settings and still does so. Since this issue began, I've done Bios updates (system and gfx). Complete driver removal and testing of different versions (nVidia). I've tried the various suggested settings and nothing has stopped this issue that occurs only with FFXIV. I really enjoy this game, otherwise I'd just play something else.

Edit/Addendum:
Logged into the client. Got a phone call. Intro movie is running... Black Screen. This occurred on the 2nd or 3rd loop.