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White Pixely Screen of DeathFollow

#1 Jan 20 2004 at 4:00 AM Rating: Decent

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Hi, I've had this game since the start of december and have experienced very little problems with it...until recently.

I've never really had problems running it with everything maxed out, but the last couple days, I frequently experience a problem with the screen whiting out with pixelation. The background music continues, but the the computer is completely frozen, requiring a hard-boot.

I run Windows XP Pro, and here is my system information courtesy of PlayOnline.

===============================
System
================================

CPU = Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.60GHz
CPU Speed = 2599 MHz
No. of CPUs = 2
OS = Microsoft Windows XP Ver 5.01.2600
Version of DirectX = DirectX 8.1b
Main Memory = Capacity: 510MB : Free Space: 298MB
Drive [C:\] = Local Disk Free Space: 67.34 GB (Capacity: 76.32 GB )
Drive [D:\] = Local Disk Free Space: 9.47 GB (Capacity: 37.26 GB )
PlayOnline Viewer Install Path = C:\Program Files\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\PlayOnlineViewer\
Tetra Master Install Path = C:\Program Files\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\TetraMaster\
FINAL FANTASY XI Install Path = C:\Program Files\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XI\
Graphics Card = NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200
Type of Chip = GeForce4 Ti 4200
Video Driver = nv4_disp.dll
Version = 6.14.10.5216
Updated = 10/06/2003 02:16 PM
VendorId = 0x10DE
DeviceId = 0x0253
SubSysId = 0x160310B0
Revision = 162
WHQLLevel = Signed(Date:Unknown)
VRAM = 128.0MB
AvailableVidMem = 122.4MB
AvailableTextureMem = 149.0MB
Sound Card = SB Audigy Audio [EF80]
Sound Driver = ctaud2k.sys
Version = 5.12.01.0441-1.84.0010
Updated = 10/08/2003 10:06 AM
Network Card = Instant Wireless USB Network Adapter ver.2.5
Network Driver = LSWLUSB.sys
Version = 1.07.24.1025
Updated = 09/28/2001 07:47 AM
Motherboard = P4R800-VM
Manufacturer = ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Version = 1.02
Serial Number = MB-1234567890

I have heard friends have had similar problems to me, and I want to know if anyone else knows about this. I have no idea what has caused this to spark up, I have been running this particular system for about a month without a hitch. The lock ups would randomly happen, but it'd be isolated incidents which would happen once a week. Now they happen a couple times a day. Sometimes right after another.

#2 Jan 20 2004 at 4:11 AM Rating: Decent

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your config looks good..you shouldn't have everything maxed out with your Ti4200 even if it never caused any problems before. It's like a high refreshing rate...many screens can take it but eventually you will run into problems. WinXP had some problems with gaming.. do you keep your OS updated? also check NVIDIA website for the recent updates. Althought it seems my older drivers work better for FFXI...

#3 Jan 20 2004 at 4:14 AM Rating: Decent

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also check out this site to tweak your services for gaming machine... WinXP starts up with lots of unrequired services.

#4 Jan 20 2004 at 4:17 AM Rating: Decent

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Actually, I haven't updated XP recently. X_X I'll try that and see if it works.

Edited, Tue Jan 20 04:18:30 2004 by Kaizoku

#5 Jan 20 2004 at 4:18 AM Rating: Decent

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I've pretty much had the same trouble since the beginning, only some different is in the setup, really. Also, I've done a full reload of the system and updated straight to the latest everything before trying this game (before installing any others). Not only can I not play FFXI for more than maybe 15-30 minutes at a time (sometimes less) without my entire comp crashing, but the same exact trouble happens with the new and old Vana'diel benchmark programs on either setting. 1/4 done, or nearly through, and it bombs.

Anyone have any ideas?

===============================
System
=================================

CPU = AMD Athlon XP(TM) Processor
CPU Speed = 1815 MHz
No. of CPUs = 1
OS = Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 Ver 5.01.2600
Version of DirectX = DirectX 9.0
Main Memory = Capacity: 511MB : Free Space: 127MB
Drive [C:\] = Local Disk Free Space: 11.83 GB (Capacity: 55.90 GB )
PlayOnline Viewer Install Path = C:\Program Files\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\PlayOnlineViewer\
Tetra Master Install Path = C:\Program Files\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\TetraMaster\
FINAL FANTASY XI Install Path = C:\Program Files\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XI\
Graphics Card = NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200
Type of Chip = GeForce4 Ti 4200
Video Driver = nv4_disp.dll
Version = 6.14.10.5303
Updated = 11/17/2003 10:33 AM
VendorId = 0x10DE
DeviceId = 0x0253
SubSysId = 0xFA110B0
Revision = 163
WHQLLevel = Signed(Date:Unknown)
VRAM = 128.0MB
AvailableVidMem = 122.4MB
AvailableTextureMem = 239.0MB
Sound Card = Santa Cruz(tm)
Sound Driver = tbcwdm.sys
Version = 5.12.01.4161-3236
Updated = 04/17/2002 02:51 PM
Network Card = Linksys NC100 Fast Ethernet Adapter
Network Driver = AN983.sys
Version = 2.17.1025.2001
Updated = 08/28/2002 10:59 PM
Network Card = WAN Network Driver
Network Driver = wandrv.sys
Version = 6.0.0.8
Updated = 08/09/2001 05:26 PM
Motherboard = VT8367-8233
Manufacturer =
Version =
Serial Number =

#6 Jan 20 2004 at 4:28 AM Rating: Decent

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513 posts

I really can't pinpoint your problems... Heck, even at work with my MMX440 my comp don't crash... I did get alot of boot at a certain point and it seemed to be a very common problem in the Allakhazam community but nothing since. I did go back to older version of NVIDIA drivers since tho I must say. The crashs would mostly happen at Bastok AH and in Mog house. The game AND POL would shut down completly... If you have newer drivers for your video cards, pull out your installation cd's and get the older drivers back in. See if it makes a difference

#7 Jan 20 2004 at 4:29 AM Rating: Decent

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195 posts

Also, with further conversation with Darton (a friend outside of this forum) I have figured out that we have the same video card.

Gainward GeForce 4 Ultra 650/XP Golden Sample Power Pack

If anyone knows if this card has known problems please post here.

#8 Jan 20 2004 at 4:39 AM Rating: Decent

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513 posts

I've double checked your RAM specs and it's low on available memory..did you do your POL info system with other programs running? Seems you both have over 212-384mb eatin up by somthing. 298 and 129mb is not much to run FFXI with all graphics enhancements running.
Perhaps you have too many background services running. Check the website I provided above to learn how to disable them, or at least turn them to manual settings.

#9 Jan 20 2004 at 4:43 AM Rating: Decent

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Oh, yeah, I was doing other stuff at the time. I'll double check on that stuff later if I run into problems.

Thanks for your help/

#10 Jan 20 2004 at 10:39 AM Rating: Decent

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Can't further the investigation myself other that to confirm that I've experienced the same issue with my Gainward Geforce TI-4200. (white background with little red dots).

Just a question for Darton. You sure that the 4200 supports DirectX 9? I thought it could only handle the 8x. I had a problem getting my sys to run until I uninstalled the 9x drivers for DirectX, after that it worked, well kinda...

I guess I've been fortunate for I haven't been effected nearly to your extent. I've got all my software for both OS and Graphics card up-to date. Tried calling the games tech support and got the unnerving responce, "Gain..what? Never heard of that card." Srry guys but we may just be out of luck.

#11 Jan 20 2004 at 12:13 PM Rating: Decent

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I don't really think RAM is the problem, since back before I reloaded (for other issues) I tried running FFXI not only after disabling some pointless services, but also after uninstalling most other applications that have background processes completely off my computer.

Needless to say, I had a lot of RAM to spare, then.

Besides, I'm running the lowest possible settings until this is cleared up. I don't even have my card overclocked (which I thought was the problem initially, so I set the utility for it to 'safe mode', which runs at the lowest speed available).

Also, I upgraded to DX9b after I started experiencing these problems, in hopes it would resolve things. Same with drivers (I'm not going back to the ones that came with the card on the CD, since those were horrible for everything). Also, I've tried this with or without the WDM drivers installed (the ones for the VIVO - video-in/out - portion of the card) but no luck there.

I just find it really amusing that everything else remotely 3D (nothing as new as FFXI, really) runs flawlessly on my comp. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I've fixed computers professionally before, and even after the classic 'checklist', reseating it, and everything short of replacing it, I'm stumped.

#12 Jan 22 2004 at 4:28 AM Rating: Decent

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526 posts

Alright, I've gone through that page as recommended and eliminated a bunch of services I flat-out didn't need. I also went ahead and reinstalled DirectX, the latest video, VIA, and WDM drivers, as well as checked all PlayOnline and FFXI files for integrity, along with a full scan of the hard drive for viruses, spyware, read/write errors, and a defrag to clear it all up.

Now. I'm about to run the game again, to see if it licked the problem. My setup has otherwise not changed from what I posted above.

Also, just so people know, the connection I'm using is dial-up and my ISP is actually the el-cheapo Wal-Mart Connect. An AOL clone, I know. Trust me, I'm not proud, I'm just almost broke, and it actually works pretty good.

Also, Kaizoku (the friend I know from outside the game) seems to have cleared his problems up when he upgraded from DX 8 to 9, so I have a feeling that negates the whole issue mentioned about our cards (we have the exact same, right down to memory size, chipset, and speed - except mine has an updated BIOS, which I might roll back next) not being compatible with DX9.0b

Additionally, my motherboard (since the info couldn't pick it up for some reason) is a Soltek 75DRV-5 ( http://www.technoyard.com/hardware/motherboards/75DRV5/page_1.html has info on it, if anyone wants) using the latest BIOS and the VIA 4.51 Hyperion drivers (with 3.20b Miniport driver instead of the IDE filter, since I have an ATA-133 hard drive, and noticed a significant performance hit if I don't swap them out).

Anyhow, enough tech talk for me. If this fixes it, it'll all be in vain anyhow. But if it doesn't, I could sure appreciate any advice (including any recommendations on nForce2 boards, which is what I'm tempted to upgrade to, next).

#13 Jan 22 2004 at 4:34 AM Rating: Decent

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I had simmiliar Problem and my problem was the Power Supply.

Check in your Bios if you can see the core volt's. If you have a Asus Mainboard install the Board tool and check Power.

My Power was instead of 12V 10.8-11.4V after i replaced my Powersupply never had this problem.

#14 Jan 22 2004 at 5:35 AM Rating: Decent

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It did it again. Granted, it took it about a half hour, but it was the exact same issue. Just a sidenote, FFXI looks ugly on minimum resolution, with everything else off. I could barely tell a Forest Hare from a Carrion Worm maybe ten feet away.

For anyone who may go "you have a heating issue" let me just say my case is kept at a modestly cool temperature (usually cooler than my room, and I don't run the heater at all) and right when the last crash happened I turned everything off, and with my handy ESD bracelet I managed to touch the memory chips on the card, as well as the heatsink/fan mount, and didn't feel threatened that it would melt my skin off.

The Soltek Hardware Monitor shows the following:
CPU Voltage: 1.648
DIMM Voltage: 2.432
3.3V: 3.344
5V: 4.865
-5V: -5.207
12V: 12.032
-12V: 11.867
5VSB: 4.914
Battery: 3.12

Does this really look that unusual? If so, I'll seriously consider borrowing a friends power unit to test, but otherwise, I don't know what to say. What I have is an Enermax 350w, with two fans (one variable - always cranked to the max).

#15 Jan 23 2004 at 4:55 AM Rating: Decent

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Still having trouble, to no surprise.

So, yeah, after all my trouble yesterday with FFXI I managed to log on for about 30-40 minutes and almost complete a supply quest, not to mention nearly get to level 5. Today I went ahead and disconnected all the peripherals from my comp, disabled the extra USB ports, added another cooling fan near my video card (just in case), pulled out my NIC (unused, but on the same IRQ as my card), upgraded my modem drivers just in case, and turned all the 'pretty' screen enhancements off in XP.

I've also reset my BIOS to optimized defaults, and reinstalled my video driver back to the one that originally came on the CD (28.32) and am about to try it again, on the same low settings.

Sigh, I'd almost kill for a nice nForce2 board with one of the new Radeon cards right about now.

#16 Jan 23 2004 at 4:16 PM Rating: Decent

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Aren't you people sick of me, yet?

I think I may have found one thing in some official documentation that may be useful to someone else. This is taken directly from nVidia's ForceWare Release Notes (53.03):

• Windows XP: Antialiasing doesn't appear to be working in Final Fantasy XI benchmark.
This is a known issue with the application. NVIDIA is working with the developer to address it.

Found, here: http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/53.03/ForceWare_Release_Graphics_Drivers_Release_Notes_WinXP2k_53.03.v3.pdf

Now, I'm not certain that this actually applies to the issue I'm having, and it doesn't mention the game specifically, but the benchmark for me has the exact same symptoms. Even if I run it on Low and cut Antialiasing off in the GeForce4's display properties, or leave it to have the application choose.

I fiddled more with the BIOS (Optimized and Fail-safe defaults caused) which caused the game to crash even when creating a new character. Now, however, the video will just get really corrupt, and start flashing 8-color pixels in large blocks around. it's really hard to describe, but there's a square outline that's the same effect, but noticabley different colors, where the mouse was last on the screen. When it does that, and I'm still able to manipulate the game to some extent. I can't see what I'm doing, but when I actually got into the game and killed a Forest Hare, then it started up, I typed /logout at what I assumed was the prompt and after the 30 seconds was up I heard the music change to the menu, and then when I hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to try and get the task manager up the screen froze totally and I had to hard-boot.

I'm going to try, just for the heck of it, the International 53.03 drivers, just because I can. More later, if anything changes.

While I'm at it, though, I'm wondering if anyone happens to remember the name of a certain GeForce series tweak utility out there that's pretty popular. I forgot the name of it, but I remember it had a ton of options and profiles for different games, and it worked for my older GF3 Ti500 pretty well. I'll do some searching, but just wondering if anyone can think of it off the top of their head. It's for the last-ditch effort before I buy new hardware (being broke -sucks-) and when I'm past the point of caring about support.

#17 Jan 23 2004 at 5:33 PM Rating: Decent

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For the AMD user I would check your CPU tempature I know I had a problem with other games after about 30min of play only to find out out my machine was burning up. I switch to a After market fan and that solved all my problems.

#18 Jan 24 2004 at 12:50 AM Rating: Decent

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I'm running a Swiftech MCX462 (square, no thermoelectric) with a 3500rpm 80mm fan, and haven't come across any cooling issues myself. Not to mention I don't have anything overclocked (in case I missed explaining, earlier).

The plan with the 53.03 Internationl drivers didn't work, and neither did swapping out for an older sound driver. I found a beta driver set, and I remember the tweaking utility now (RivaTuner) so we'll see how I fare on those attempts in the next few days.

Small victory: I did make it to level 5 and completed a supply quest before getting poisoned by and then dying (at which point my comp crashed, with fine timing as usual). All in about 35 minutes.

#19 Jan 24 2004 at 1:36 AM Rating: Decent

Thief's Knife

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It is suspected by many (myself included) that FFXI has a memory leak. This can cause what look like random crashes after a few hours of play. Since I started logging off and rebooting every 5 hours or so the random crashes have completely stopped.

____________________________

Final Fantasy XI 12-14-11 Update wrote:

Adjust the resolution of menus.
The main screen resolution for "FINAL FANTASY XI" is dependent on the "Overlay Graphics Resolution" setting.
If the Overlay Graphics Resolution is set higher than the Menu Resolution, menus will be automatically resized.

I thought of it first:

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=130073657654872218#20

#20 Jan 24 2004 at 5:41 AM Rating: Decent

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That's an interesting idea, and I hadn't thought of that possibility. I was either thinking my chipset's AGP drivers were at fault, or the actual video card.

Any idea on how to test for this? For instance an app that monitors memory performance and logs it, so that after a crashes they can be compared to see if there's anything that randomly rusts up the works and causes these types of problems?

I'm really willing to try just about anything to get this working. My free month and first paid month (on top of a second content ID for when a friend on another server gets me a WP for it) all blown just so I can get play in 30 minute intervals, and likely just log dead when it does come back up? ***** that noise.

#21 Jan 24 2004 at 8:41 AM Rating: Decent

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You might want to check with the card manufacturer to see if they over-clock their cards without telling anyone. White snow on the screen is the tell-tale sign of a card over-clocked too high. You might only notice it during FFXI because the entire PC client is just a crappy PS2 port that I doubt is optimized for PC users. It probably puts a much higher strain on your card than other games, simply because the developers couldn't be bothered to optimize it for our hardware. Try downloading the latest version of 3dMark and running the heaviest tests you can on your card. If you see white snow during some of the tests, it's most likely your card over-heating because of bad cooling or over-clocking.

#22 Jan 24 2004 at 10:11 AM Rating: Decent

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I've had similar problems like this before

The game would crash whenever someone cast a protect spell or the graphical elements for the home point crystal appeared

I had just upgraded my graphics card to a Nvidia Geforce 5900 too :p

But.... after i changed my old motherboard to something that had a 8X agp slot everything went away.
My previous motherboard was an asus with only 4X agp

Maybe the problem lies in a bottleneck of some sort when tranferring the graphical data and the game just crashes when it can't shfit the data fast enough

My reccomendation then is just to change your motherboard hehe but it would really suck if that didn't solve the problem

#23 Jan 24 2004 at 7:05 PM Rating: Decent

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It isn't white snow on the screen, exactly. It's really hard to describe, but the entire screen flickers, flashes, and moves random colored pixels around kinda like a hurricane (think the old monitors when they got out-of-sync, only I can clearly see all the pixels, and they're maybe half a centimeter square.

Then, when it does lock up, the screen is tiled full with this, basically, and I can't do anything:

http://stellargem.eldaran.net/pixels.gif

I don't think it's overclocked from the get-go, according to Gainward's site. Their utlity (EXPERTool) has a mode which enables the functions, and a Safe Mode which cuts them off. On Safe Mode, where I always keep it because I'm not a huge fan of overclocking anything, is GPU: 250mhz and Memory: 500mhz

That shouldn't be unusual for a GF4 Ti4200, should it?

But that is a good point, and I'm actually asking around if I can find someone else in town with the exact same card so I can compare (maybe mine's a fluke) or a better one so I can see if it makes any difference.

Thanks to everyone who's contributing here, by the way! I think the answer may be in sight, or I'll be looking for the PS2 version when it comes out.

/sigh

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