problem with vista

[jon2323]

(if this is the wrong section, i'm sorry, please move it, thanks.)

i downloaded the playonline vista patch, installed it and pol is working, but when i come to install FFXI and exp packs, it says POL isnt installed :/

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7563/polrw3.jpg

But it is installed lol, lets me log on pol and do updates etc

Anyone know why i cant install FFXI?

[Nilheim]

Hi, you should go on the official website of FFXI, they have a very good guide explaining how to install the game when you use Vista

Maybe you downloaded the wrong file? They have one for NA/EU/JP iirc. Sorry but it was a while ago and I'm not too sure

[Cloudius]

Don't have Vista, but I remember after installing the vista POL off playonline.com you put in your FFXI DVD, and stop the Auto intallation. Then go into your DVD via My Computer and install FFXI and each of the expansions 1 by 1 manually.

[cdgreg]

I used the little guide on windower.net to install on vista

[Mahman]

(if this is the wrong section, i'm sorry, please move it, thanks.)

i downloaded the playonline vista patch, installed it and pol is working, but when i come to install FFXI and exp packs, it says POL isnt installed :/

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7563/polrw3.jpg

But it is installed lol, lets me log on pol and do updates etc

Anyone know why i cant install FFXI?

The actual problem is that you're using Vista. If you can use XP I would highly recommend doing so. Microsoft is so ashamed of its Vista operating system that it is trying to rush Windows 7 out the door to make people forget that Vista ever happened.

The other posters have identified Vista work-arounds, but really man, throw Vista in the trash.

[Mrdude]

get used to those errors.

Seriosuly.

Atleast once every few hours I get a "Error: Playonline has shutdown" on a good day I might get a few hours before it crashes, though. The zones that do it the worst for me is Wajoam and Bhaflau, I have no clue why, but every 5-10 mins I get booted there, if anyone knew why that would be it would be nice. >.>

Now, for a semi helpful response, when I did mine I torrented all the disks.
What I did was, installed PoL off the official website, then went into PoL and manually added each expansion from one of the screens I can't remember. I've never installed it "normally" with pc before, but it was nearly the same as installing on my ps2, only I had to use a program so it thought the file was actually a disk.

[Day]

get used to those errors.

Seriosuly.

Atleast once every few hours I get a "Error: Playonline has shutdown" on a good day I might get a few hours before it crashes, though. The zones that do it the worst for me is Wajoam and Bhaflau, I have no clue why, but every 5-10 mins I get booted there, if anyone knew why that would be it would be nice. >.>

Now, for a semi helpful response, when I did mine I torrented all the disks.
What I did was, installed PoL off the official website, then went into PoL and manually added each expansion from one of the screens I can't remember. I've never installed it "normally" with pc before, but it was nearly the same as installing on my ps2, only I had to use a program so it thought the file was actually a disk.

Run a file check from POL, make sure you use the drop down to select FFXI files. Your crash sounds exactly liek what was happening to me. I had a 104.dat file corrupt, but it took me a while to figure it out... after trying countless troubleshooting steps, I ended up doing a file check which hung on my 104.dat. After it hung I just searched for all 104.dats and deleted them, then ran the file check and fix, and I haven't crashed since.

For OP. iirc it is very important that you run the POL install from Vista before you do anything else. Then launch that POL and then install the disks... *I think* this is how I had to do it. I know I ran into the same error and I was doing something out of order.

[Maksudyst]

Are you running it as an admin? I remember someone saying that if you don't run it as an admin, and you download the big update, it will give some error and I think you'd have to reinstall it.

[Mrdude]

Run a file check from POL, make sure you use the drop down to select FFXI files. Your crash sounds exactly liek what was happening to me. I had a 104.dat file corrupt, but it took me a while to figure it out... after trying countless troubleshooting steps, I ended up doing a file check which hung on my 104.dat. After it hung I just searched for all 104.dats and deleted them, then ran the file check and fix, and I haven't crashed since.

well, I'm not great with computers and such, what do you mean by the "Drop down to select ffxi files"?

Also, you ran file check from the login for playonline, correct? Or is the another file check program that I don't know of?

what exactly do you mean by "the file check hung on your 104.dat", it just got stuck on it?

If this would fix it I may have the patience to actually exp a new job, I hate playing on my ps2 now that I've experianced pc, but getting kicked every 10 mins is really terrible.

sorry if any of my questions are competely stupid, I really am terrible with computer stuff.

[Tekumel]

Did you install FFXI and the expansions before, or after installing the Vista version of POL? If you installed it before with original POL, then installed Vista over that I could see there being conflicts. If you simply copied FFXI & expansions from a backup disk or another computer, then you need the registry entries.

Also, what version of Vista are you using: 32-bit or 64-bit? If it's 64-bit it may have somehow installed POL into the wrong Program Files folder (Program Files vs. Program Files (x86)). If that's the case, you'll have to reinstall one or the other.

[Day]

well, I'm not great with computers and such, what do you mean by the "Drop down to select ffxi files"?

Also, you ran file check from the login for playonline, correct? Or is the another file check program that I don't know of?

what exactly do you mean by "the file check hung on your 104.dat", it just got stuck on it?

If this would fix it I may have the patience to actually exp a new job, I hate playing on my ps2 now that I've experianced pc, but getting kicked every 10 mins is really terrible.

sorry if any of my questions are competely stupid, I really am terrible with computer stuff.

So when you first login to POL you can take options or something and do a file check. Yes, you are correct this is POL. However at that file check screen where it says Check Files: it will default to POL Viewer. You want to change that to Final Fantasy XI.

Also yes it did get stuck on 104.dat. In theory it should just run and tell you which files are corrupted/missing and then give you the option to repair, however mine hung there so I just assumed (correctly) that it was the problem file. However I had a bunch of 104.dats so I just deleted them all (Just ran a search in my ffxi folder for 104.dat). Once I ran the repair and it replaced the files, I haven't crashed since.

If you try all that and it doesn't help I suggest posting your issue in the tech forums here so some of the super geeks can help more than this regular geek. >.<

[Mrdude]

hehe, thanks, I did run the ffxi check like you said, 8 files were corrupted, but I think they were all dat swaps.

Afterwords I got the same dcing in waj/bhaf, but it seems that its been crashing less normally.

Edit: I also run on mogtoolz, any clue if that could effect anything?

Only reason I do is because my laptop is... well, sub par to say the least. Atleast this way I can play it on my laptop.

[Chenzhen]

To OP: Last time I formatted and reinstalled FFXI I got the same error when I reinstalled in this order:

Regular POL > Vista POL > Game

I uninstalled everything and went in this order:

Regular POL > Game + Expansions > Vista POL

That worked out fine. (I'm on x64 Vista if it matters)

[ahnalia]

I too had the same problem. None of the above solutions worked for me, but one thing finally did.
I went down to gamestop and bought the FFXI starter pack for $1.99, (a tech at SE suggested it), it has a vista compatible version of the POL viewer already on it.
I was able to install the POL viewer fine from there, and install FFXI and all expansions from that, with no problems.
Maybe you could try the same thing? I hope it helps if you try it