POL crash on log in

[Shinsei]

Ok look, I know most will like to bash "oh there's a post like this already". If there is, I'm terribly sorry but I've been getting frustrated lately and I have no idea how to fix this or what the hell is causing the problem, so I'm making a post here on BG in hopes that someone out there may know what the problem is or at least how to go about fixing it.


Firstly, this is the second time around this has happened to me, why I don't know

The Problem:

Everything would be going normal just like any old day, keep my game running etc (play on Windower). One day I decided to be nice to my PC and actually log the char off when I'm not playing instead of keeping it running standing around bazaaring, so I did just that. Came back home, decided to log into the game, right after you select your character and it gets to the black loading screen where it says "Downloading Data" at the bottom right, a Windows error pops up and crashes the game. Does not even pass the black screen.

This originally happened to my PC, tried a full reinstall etc, did not fix the issue so I said screw it and just decided to install and play on my laptop. Now eventually the same problem that happened with my PC, happened to the laptop. To be more descriptive, the POL crash on log in only happened when I tried to log in certain characters in, but I was able to log on to various mules with no problem. That puzzles me to no end.

I did a uninstall/reinstall and update, problem got fixed, so I went back to playing the game. Then now I decided to log off last night, went out, came back home, start up the game, voila...same crash again. Keep in mind I have tried running the game without windower, it crashes there too. Same exact characters keep getting the crash errors on log in(some on different accounts), but zero problems logging onto my mules.

Basically I can't get past the black screen. I'm not really computer-suave(sp?) but my router is enabled to accept all ports/TCP or w/e they call that. I had called up SE and that's the explanation they gave me to fix it, because the game uses some TCP <insert number> port to run and all I had to do was enable all ports, which I did but the problem still persists. I stood up all night uninstalling reinstalling, downloading the update but the problem is still there.

I'm basically running out of ideas so this is why I'm posting, in hopes that someone out there can be of some assistance.

Thanks in advance


Information:
Laptop
Operating System: Windows XP

Not that it matters, but here's some extremely crappy pics from my wife's phone
http://i19.servimg.com/u/f19/12/69/38/22/polcra10.jpg

[ramp]

Maybe your main character is logged off in an area (server) where your pc can't connect to. I've had this happen before on my main as well while mules were fine, long black screen onlogin and eventually crash.

In the end a simple open a command prompt (start->run>cmd enter): ipconfig /flushdns ended up fixing it for me, alternatively if it is a recurring problem, might want to try changing dns servers too.

[Mafai]

Maybe your main character is logged off in an area (server) where your pc can't connect to. I've had this happen before on my main as well while mules were fine, long black screen onlogin and eventually crash.

In the end a simple open a command prompt (start->run>cmd enter): ipconfig /flushdns ended up fixing it for me, alternatively if it is a recurring problem, might want to try changing dns servers too.

like he said:

ipconfig /flushdns

also reboot your router

[Shinsei]

I see, well I am currently in the middle of reinstalling again and is almost over. If the problem still persists I will just try that, and I'll keep that in mind lol, thank you both.

Man I will bang my head on the wall if such an easy applicable method is the solution for this.

[Tsuko_Asura]

May be completely unrelated, but I find that the exact same thing happens when I disconnect and relog without completing restarting POL 99% of the time.

[Mafai]

May be completely unrelated, but I find that the exact same thing happens when I disconnect and relog without completing restarting POL 99% of the time.

im pretty sure your problem is with a 3rd party program thats hooking ffxi. if you exit back to POL (before the character select screen), and try to go back in, it causes the crash.

[Tsuko_Asura]

Guess that makes sense. I'll list out the plugins that I actively use later.

[Deader2818]

I had that happened to me before and it was just a dat file that was corrupt. Windows was actually able to restore it for me without having to do a full reinstall.

[bungiefan]

Just a note for screenshotting error Windows, Alt+Print Screen takes a screenshot of the active window on your screen, so you can copy it into Paint or such, instead of having to get a camera.

[Kaces]

- rename the profiles for your char in the USER folder located in your FFXI folder if you're able to login find a new zone and give it a proper /shutdown

- many corrupt .dats will not be fixed via SE's garbage scanner, reinstall is the fix
if it's dats that are going bad, your harddrive may be starting to give.

[DAKPluto]

- rename the profiles for your char in the USER folder located in your FFXI folder if you're able to login find a new zone and give it a proper /shutdown

- many corrupt .dats will not be fixed via SE's garbage scanner, reinstall is the fix
if it's dats that are going bad, your harddrive may be starting to give.

Or they have updated FFXI from within windower, which has been known (although rare) to corrupt dats.

[Shinsei]

well the problem persisted after the reinstall but ipconfig /flushdns worked like a charm.


@Tsuko
I think one of the three times it happened to me was the result of a random disconnect>relog but I could be wrong. Either way, I'm glad it's working now, thank you guys

[Arximiro]

May be completely unrelated, but I find that the exact same thing happens when I disconnect and relog without completing restarting POL 99% of the time.

Same thing happens to me, especially annoying when you DC and are trying to get back on quick. Ends up logging you in then crashing, then you have to restart and it says you're logged in and to please try again in a few minutes for over a minute.

[Hixc]

i found by making sure u run windower as administrator and change compatibility mode to windows xp sp2 it runs fine

[Shinsei]

Getting this problem again and I tried the ipconfig /flushdns method but it is not working this time around.

Anyone know how to change DNS servers?

Or if anything, if you're renaming the names of the folders in under the USER folder, can it be anything or will it screw things up?

[azagarth]

I also have sort of a similar problem. I can log into my main fine, but very often (70%) of the time when I log to my mule it loads up and then shutsdown on me. I have been use to when dcing it just making me full reboot the game (no clue why, but I dont dc enough to really look into it). But now with fishing and crafting It takes forever to move stuff with all the crashes. Any ideas?