FFXI crashes to desktop

[Jaunty]

Hello,

Having a problem with my FFXI crashing to desktop in certain areas.

I only seem to be effected when I'm in Bastok Markets, Fort Karugo-Narugo (S) and Wajaom Woodlands. There may be other areas but none that have crashed yet.

Basically its completely random when I'm within one of those zones, could be 30 minuets, could be 30 seconds, doesn't matter if I'm idle, fighting nor does it matter if the game has high data at the time and I just get a Vista error saying there was a problem with Playonline Viewer and crash to desktop.

I have tried to Check Files of Playonline and FFXI. Tried also re-installing with different FFXI installation Discs. This is not unique to my main account and happens with any other account that runs on this laptop. I don't get the same crashes on any other machine so know its a problem with my laptop. Though my laptop runs everything else I've ever installed perfectly.

I use the FFXI's own windower, but have tried without the windower and still get crashes.

I hope someone can help me!



Specs:
Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 2
2.15 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
2046 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300

Thank you!

[Despain]

Check your files? That might fix it.

EDIT: Nevermind. Lol

[Caiyuo]

blah, the only thing I had even close to this for a solution was possibly Spellcast/AutoExec, but I haven't heard of those crashing shit out in a long while anyway, but if it happens without Windower then ...D:

The only other thing that sticks out in my mind is that it's a laptop. Any chance that it's simply getting too hot and crashing? Those zones seem awfully friggin random. lol Outside of that I didn't see any mention of graphics drivers. Any chance they could be something you can update? I know laptop drivers are sketchy, but there's patches avail for Nvidia stuff to stay up to date. :d

Probably didn't help, so good luck! lol

[Jaunty]

Nope, can happen even when my laptop is perfectly cool. Even if I had just started and was in one of these zones it could crash. And yea, dont use any windower plugin's as I only use Playonlines official windower.

All my drivers, graphics cards etc are up to date .

To be honest I just avoid those areas when I can but when it cant be helped they still crash lol. (often go meh Fort has a campaign battle on, sure I wont crash... wrong. Even today I passed through Bastok Markets to get to metalworks and sure enough lol).

Thanks so far, hopefully I can find a solution (other than new laptop lol).

[Caiyuo]

Yeah that'd be ridiculous to have to resort to, but what a random ass problem to have. Usually there's a pretty good hint hidden somewhere within the initial blurb as to what's going wrong, but I just don't have a freaking clue. lol

[Kaza]

I was just about to make a post with somehow similar problem :/

Although my game doesn't crash but the graphics get all messy and i can't see anything.
i tried logging with and without windower. reinstalled the game many times and reinstalled all the dats from pol thinking it might be a dat file corruption or something like that.

i'm running on Windows xp\
Intel core2 quad Q9400, 266GHz
Nvidia 9400 GT

brand new PC and it's driving me crazy :/. i tried everything but i'm not much in tech problems.

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p...719_002200.png
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p...714_225233.png

[Mistress Stowastiq]

Kaza do you have dat mods?

[Kaza]

Had. and took it all out when i reinstalled and updated from POL. currently running on pure FFXI files. but still having the same problem

[Kryssan]

Video card is either bad, drivers are bad, or your videocard is overheating. Just because the computer is cool doesn't mean local die temperatures can't be skyrocketing. Check to make sure heatsincs are seated properly. Might also be worthwhile to replace the heatsincs/reapply the thermal compounds. Some companies use cheapie stuff.


However, start with the easy stuff first. Cycle through any/every driver you can get your hands on, or if you fall under one of those issues where you can't use vanilla drivers get a driver modification tool and build yourself a set of drivers for your machine based on the latest vanillas.

[Aksannyi]

I used to have this crashing problem. It was certain zones, and certain effects that I'd narrowed it down to. Ice elementals, Ice Spikes, Enblizzard all caused crashes, in addition to certain zones like Bastok Markets, Ulegerand Range, Dynamis - San d'Oria, among others.

This is definitely a problem with the laptop. I never had this problem until I got this laptop and I've never seen anyone else who has it. It's a tricky bitch. And I can't even really tell you what worked, but I think that what fixed my error - which is seriously the most frustrating fucking thing ever, I know - was going into the power options and setting the laptop to High Performance.

This is a very uncommon error. You're only like the third person I've seen throughout the entire internet who seems to have the problem. The only response I ever got in regards to it was, "This laptop was never meant to run FFXI. You're just going to have to deal with it." ... Nevermind that was the whole fucking reason I bought it in the first place.

Drivers won't fix it, neither will a game reinstall. I tried all of that, believe me. I haven't had the problem in months and the only thing I can connect it to is the change to High Performance. I hope this helps somewhat, but if it doesn't, I'll watch this thread to see if I can help you with it any further, because I know how frustrating this shit is. I d/c'ed 15 times in one Dynamis - Sandy before I just said "fuck it, I'm not logging back in." So I feel your pain. But this definitely sounds like the problem I used to have.

[Kryssan]

I used to have this crashing problem. It was certain zones, and certain effects that I'd narrowed it down to. Ice elementals, Ice Spikes, Enblizzard all caused crashes, in addition to certain zones like Bastok Markets, Ulegerand Range, Dynamis - San d'Oria, among others.

This is definitely a problem with the laptop. I never had this problem until I got this laptop and I've never seen anyone else who has it. It's a tricky bitch. And I can't even really tell you what worked, but I think that what fixed my error - which is seriously the most frustrating fucking thing ever, I know - was going into the power options and setting the laptop to High Performance.

This is a very uncommon error. You're only like the third person I've seen throughout the entire internet who seems to have the problem. The only response I ever got in regards to it was, "This laptop was never meant to run FFXI. You're just going to have to deal with it." ... Nevermind that was the whole fucking reason I bought it in the first place.

Drivers won't fix it, neither will a game reinstall. I tried all of that, believe me. I haven't had the problem in months and the only thing I can connect it to is the change to High Performance. I hope this helps somewhat, but if it doesn't, I'll watch this thread to see if I can help you with it any further, because I know how frustrating this shit is. I d/c'ed 15 times in one Dynamis - Sandy before I just said "fuck it, I'm not logging back in." So I feel your pain. But this definitely sounds like the problem I used to have.

Laptop power management functions like a lowgrade/low watt PSU for highend cards/computer components. What you were experiencing is a symptom of the actual problem. This is one of the reasons I will never proscribe laptops for anything except mobility. If it doesn't move outside your house, it doesn't need to be a laptop. Period. Fucking. Dot. I don't know what your particular situation is, but I see far far too many people buying laptops for the novelty, placing it on their desk, and never moving it...


The laptop tries to save power and in doing so cuts out things it feels the computer doesn't need. IE your video card capabilities, LAN bandwidth, CPU power, etc. Its essentially having a power supply too weak to perform for what you are trying to run. However, you can't exactly suggest to someone to upgrade their laptop's PSU. Manipulating power management is pretty much your only choice in that environment, and it is far from the best choice.

[Aksannyi]

All I'm saying is that worked, or appeared to work, for me. I originally bought the laptop because I would be doing some traveling and wanted to be able to play FFXI while I was out of town, and it became a second machine for dual boxing and for taking FF with me to my boyfriend's house, but also became a huge hassle when it came to the crashing.

I did try to do a lot of things with the laptop and that was what stuck in my mind as the last thing I attempted to fix the issue, so if that's all it was I'll take it. It may or may not be the reason it stopped crashing. I'm just trying to help, though, so if this does it we can both be happy. lol.

I realize it's a totally ghetto fix but if it works then it works.

[Jaunty]

Thank you for the helpful information, I can now add Xarabard (S) to my list of random crashes lol.

I know all my drivers are up to date, and checked to make sure everything was seated properly, there was no sign of overheating or burning (though that is normal on circuit boards).

That doesn't rule out that it could well be a failed video card etc, though to me it just seems way to random and why those specific zones and no others?

I will look for some heatsincs and replace them if I can, shouldn't be too much of a hassle. Its a Dell laptop so I blame them!

As for being a laptop, I travel a lot and rarely in the same place twise (other than home) so when staying at said hotel I like to be able to log on and play FFXI. I fully agree that tower PC's are far far superior for games, though FFXI been out long enough that my laptop is more than capible of running.

As far as I'm aware my laptop goes into high performance so long as its plugged in, I will double check this when I get back.

Again, thank you for the responces so far.