Please Help - FFXIV Causing complete system Crash

[Iron Wolf]

Ill try to be as thorough as possible, so please bear with me. After 12 hours of troubleshooting, Im out of ideas at this point and any solid advice would be greatly appreciated. Im posting this across a few boards across the internet to see if anyone out there has any ideas. If youd like to know my system hardware stats, please scroll to the bottom where Ive left a link to it


Ive recently Purchased FFXIV off of steam to play with friends. The game seems to run fine, but will randomly cause a complete system crash. The crashes causes are not always consistent, meaning they appear to not be linked to a particular area/action/visual. The most common crash type however is as follows.

Screen will abruptly turn black, sound will stutter infinitely, All chasis fans may ramp up to maximium (About 50% of the time this occurs, other time it does not). This requires a force shut down and restart. Computer will start up normally following the restart.

The program will perform crashes in bouts it seems. Where it will run for a few hours (4-5) then continuously crash after getting logged into the game. Even at character selection it may happen.

This issue is specific to FFXIV. No other game I play has any issues, and on my current set up I can run every other game at maximum settings with no problems.

Things I have tried/investigated into.
-I have downloaded programs (I believe the one I got was recommended from this site) to monitor computer stats, such as cpu/gpu heat and etc. I do not believe it to be an over heat issue at this time, as one of the crashes happens when CPU and GPU temps are still within reason (50-70Celsius range) when the game is running. All fans are running as well.

-Updating my video drivers did not fix the issue. Though there are issues with my video drivers that I am aware of (Nvidea for some reason has a difficult time updating my driver when I download and use the installer). This is a possible problem but Im personally not to sure simply because if it was the video driver, I feel I should be experiencing issues across multiple games.

-Ive run the Benchmark test provided by Square-Enix. The score the benchmark sends back is 10k in the character part.

-Ive tried adjusting all the settings from max to minimum to see if that effects the outcome. At some point in time the game will still crash.

-I have run the Steam cache verification to check for corrupted files. While Steam had found unvalidated files, after steam redownloaded and replaced those files, the crashes still continue. Steam seems to not carry the full date version, so it will always apparently find 44 unvalidated files?

-Ive run Antiviral software for any potential issues. I have also cleaned out harddrive space, and checked for any surface issue problems with the hardware through device manager.

-Ive run the game in various windowed modes to see if that causes it, this does not seem to be the case.

-I have uninstalled and reinstalled the game. The crashes still occur in the same manner.

Potential Issues that may or may not be related
- The CPU may be capping out. During one of the times when I was trying to trouble shoot this by seeing if it was a heat issue or not, I notice my CPU usage gets up to 85% total. Im not sure if this is normal or considerably high.

- Alt tabbing while windowed might be a possible cause, though crashes have occured when Ive alt tabbed, and when I wasnt running with anything in the background.

- I run vent in the background, and dont know if this may be a possible cause.

-As mentioned, the video driver has weird issues about updating, telling me it fails to update, but showing the updated version when I check. The things that may be failing to update are the PhysX system Software, The Maya Plugin, and the GeForce Experience. The other parts seem to show it as being to date.

At this point in time, if I want to continue playing the game, the only solutions Im left with is going back and assuming this is some kind of overheat/overload problem, and replacing my CPU, adding in liquid cooling, and possibly upgrading the PSU. These are things I planned on doing in tme anyways, but at this point in time, I may push it forward. However, I really dont want to have to resort to that, and not know if that will solve the issue.

So please, if anyone has anything on this, please share.
Thanks again.

EDIT: While the link below is good, Ill provide basic info too just incase people done want to use that.

hardware:
OS:Win7 Home Edition
GFX: EVGA Nvidea GTX 760
CPU: Amd Phenom II x4 965
Mobo: Asus m5a99x EVO
Mem: G.Skill (Ripjaw?) 4x4GB

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hk6bu0lacik8m4j/FFXIV%20SysInfo.rtf?dl=0

[Erepio]

hm...try downloading the game direcly from the FFXIV site and run that

that way u can see if its has something to do with the steam integration or if its purely on ffxiv end

[Jâbbérwôkkï]

Also did you try uninstalling/reinstalling the graphics driver? or perhaps try one of Nvidias beta drivers (sometimes their beta-drivers run more stable than the actual release).Are you running alot of programs at the same time as the game? If you aren't or don't usually, still check the process manager in your OS & make sure something hasn't grabbed usage away and not released it.Some programs don't always release the memory/cpu right away (or at all ) after exiting & have to be manually killed else they cause system crashes when you try to run other programs.

[Freyar]

I'd start with memtest. I've had similar symptoms (not with XIV) with a bad DIMM.

[Asphe]

Iron Wolf a écrit :

It sounds like your GPU is locking up, or it's your OS doing it.

Run CPU-Z & GPU-Z in the background (set them to run even if they are not in focus). Check versus your expected CPU/GPU's temperatures. Run Task Manager too and set that to run in the background as well. Look for any process that spikes in CPU usage/etc.

If it's your CPU doing it, one clue will be lots of mini-dump files in the C:\ or C:\Windows\Temp or where your $TEMP folder is.

You probably don't have an event log entry for this? No? So it's a very hard crash. Did you check the usual culprits like RAM/etc?

Do a 'clean install' for your nVidia drivers (only install the driver and physX, NOTHING else... later on you can disable all the Geforce Experience crap via services.msc)

You can also disable 'everything' then try running the game: i.e. disable sound, your Ventrillo... yeah everything you can get away with. You'd only want keyboard, mouse, network and video.

PS Don't use RTF for your dropbox. TXT / Notepad instead then zip it. Only the gullible will open something like that, just in case ^-^. It used to be safe until someone figured out 'pictures'.

[Iron Wolf]

Im replying from work right now, because I appreciate the responses, and that I do want this issue resolved.

I ended up reinstalling my Nvidea drivers completely from scratch last night, so Ill be retrying it again today. Im currently using their Most recent one (Feb 10th I think). The driver gave me the "Failed to Install" error, but only thing it did not install was the GeForce Experiance 2.2.2 (if I remember that correctly) and one other element, which Ill have to recheck. I also plan on reseating the memory just for good measure.

As for processes, I am fairly certain that there are no background processes running that are sucking down that much memory.

For memtesting, are there recommended programs to use for this?

For checking CPU/GPU temps I was using OpenHardwareMonitor, as that was recommended to me.

Also, I was reading some more and a possible response that such errors could be caused by the GPU/CPU pulling down more power than my powersupply can give. I am using a Corsair TX650. Originally I bought that for a system that sported a GTX 460, but upgraded about 6 months ago to the 760 and added another 8GB of ram, but left my other components as is. Is this a possible reason, or not likely by the errors.

I still have to check to see if there are a lot of mini dumps.

Anyways thanks for the responses. When I get home tonight, I will give another update from the suggestions given.

Edit: Thanks agin for the heads up about the RTF thing with dropbox. No malicious intent required, just was the most convenient way to get those specs up off the top of my head.

[Asphe]

Iron Wolf a écrit :

Im replying from work right now, because I appreciate the responses, and that I do want this issue resolved.

I ended up reinstalling my Nvidea drivers completely from scratch last night, so Ill be retrying it again today. Im currently using their Most recent one (Feb 10th I think). The driver gave me the "Failed to Install" error, but only thing it did not install was the GeForce Experiance 2.2.2 (if I remember that correctly) and one other element, which Ill have to recheck. I also plan on reseating the memory just for good measure.

As for processes, I am fairly certain that there are no background processes running that are sucking down that much memory.

For memtesting, are there recommended programs to use for this?

You can use M$'s own tools. They get the job done and work in Window. What's interesting to me is that your nVidia driver has an error on installation.

Iron Wolf a écrit :

For checking CPU/GPU temps I was using OpenHardwareMonitor, as that was recommended to me.

That's purrfectly fine.

Iron Wolf a écrit :

Also, I was reading some more and a possible response that such errors could be caused by the GPU/CPU pulling down more power than my powersupply can give. I am using a Corsair TX650. Originally I bought that for a system that sported a GTX 460, but upgraded about 6 months ago to the 760 and added another 8GB of ram, but left my other components as is. Is this a possible reason, or not likely by the errors.

It's unlikely. The TX650 can reliably deliver 750watts or more. You could have 12 Caviar Black hard drives and twin 780s in SLI and still be quite comfortable.

The extra stick of RAM may have added at worst, 5 watts and the 760 eats up about the same amount of power as the 460.

If your system was a home or custom build and it was done around the time the GTX460 came out, then it's possible the heatsink on the CPU is loose / heatsink paste has dried up. This is still a low probability. If you're using the Intel (or AMD) 'default' heatsink/paste, it's meant to last over a decade without problems.

The fact that your PC crashes when you're running a game that taxes the GPU tends to support the overheating issue. It could even be a device/card that's next to the GPU.

Iron Wolf a écrit :

I still have to check to see if there are a lot of mini dumps.

Anyways thanks for the responses. When I get home tonight, I will give another update from the suggestions given.

Since you're reseating the RAM, check for any loose, naked w...iring in the system.

Iron Wolf a écrit :

Edit: Thanks agin for the heads up about the RTF thing with dropbox. No malicious intent required, just was the most convenient way to get those specs up off the top of my head.

It's like how you don't open links in Steam chat or download files that end in .scr

Getting infected via a RTF file is kinda low probability though.

[Iron Wolf]

In regards to the Nvidea installation problem. Its been a long time problem that I could not figure out to resolve. However, since my computer continued to function just fine (games and all) I had no reason up till now to consider it a potential issue. Even with the driver "failing to install", the Nvidea installer lists that the actual driver, and most of the other assets installed. It is the Geforce experience that doesnt seem to install (and one other asset, but I cannot remember off the top of my head. Ill check that immediately when I get home)

Ive been considering the Overheat issue more and more. While OHM is telling me temps are fine, it seems like the only plausible issue at this time. I doubt the card is faulty (only 6 mo old atm, and I have no other issues on any other game or program.) What would be the possible solutions to this wihtout resorting to a $200+ water cooling system. Doing some reading around tells me that Closed loop water cooling systems do as well as their Fan/Heatsink counterparts. Are there very good heatsink/fan cooling options that I should consider before liquid cooling?

The thermal paste should be ok so far, I had redone the thermal paste on the CPU when I replaced the GFXcard, just for good measure. I will check also for it coming loose or loose wiring.

Again thanks for the responses. Ill check back in tonight after I try out the suggestions.

[Zoketo Tsumall]

did it work?

[JanFuzzball]

Master Volfire a écrit :

did it work?

I just downloaded the game from the Final Fantasy XIV site and it's working fine now. I had the same issue with my computer just randomly restarting.

So just download the game from: http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com

And install it that way ;v;

[Unholy Eve]

Mei-Ling Zhou a écrit :

Master Volfire a écrit :

did it work?

I just downloaded the game from the Final Fantasy XIV site and it's working fine now. I had the same issue with my computer just randomly restarting.

So just download the game from: http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com

And install it that way ;v;

2 year necro because?