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  • Video Card and Screen Problems thread.

    This thread is used for diagnostics and findings of video card problems and their respective solutions.

    READ THIS BEFORE POSTING: When you find a problem, please post a reply, but when you find a solution edit your problem post to include a solution! OR include the problem in your solution post. DO NOT reply with only a solution (if we don't know what the problem was, the solution is useless.)

    When you encounter a video card or display related problem, please check to make sure of the following:

    1.) You have a compatable video card, check system requirements on box.
    2.) You have the latest video drivers in the correct language and for the correct operating system.
    -----2a.) nVidia - http://www.nvidia.com
    -----2b.) ATI - http://www.ati.com

    3.) You have the latest version of DirectX for your computer.
    4.) You have updated Windows to the latest version with all the critical update patches installed.
    5.) You have disabled the Windows Key either by disabling it in Windows via the registry or by prying off the windows key off the keyboard.
    6.) If you have Windows XP, you have disabled Remote Desktop.
    7.) You have not installed any ad-ware or programs that causes pop-ups.
    8.) You have not installed/enable any remote control programs such as pcAnywhere or Terminal Services
    9.) Your video card is well ventillated to provide adequate cooling. Overheating video cards causes a graying effect and rendering failures. Severe overheating can lead to Blue Screen of Death (aka Memory Dump errors).
    10.) You are not infected with a worm or a virus that is affecting performance to such a degree to interfere with your ability to stay in full screen mode.
    11.) You have properly installed your video card and its contacts to the motherboard is not loose or damaged.
    12.) Your AGP arpeture size is set correctly, not too large to cause video problems, but not too small to make performance suffer.
    13.) Ensure your computer is clean. Computer that are clogged with dust in the fans, heatsinks, air filters, results in poor ventilation and overheating of the CPU and VPU. This contributes to poor performance and improper video rendering. Clean out your computer with an air duster, blowing out all the dust off of heatsinks and fans.

    DO NOT clean your computer with a cloth or anything that can generate static electicity, this results in damage to computer parts. Clean only with an air duster, and follow the instructions on the air duster.

    Suggested solutions:
    WARNING: FFXIonline.com, its staff and I are not responsible for any of these suggested solutions. If you are uncomfortable trying these solutions, refer to a computer professional for assistance.

    1.) First, try running Final Fantasy XI at the lowest video settings:
    -----1a.) Set overlay graphics resolution to 640x480
    -----1b.) Set background resolution to 256x256
    -----1c.) Set Texture Compression to High (uncompressed means more rendering time.)
    -----1d.) Set On-screen Maps to Compressed
    -----1e.) disable bump mapping
    -----1f.) Turn off Environmental Animation
    -----1g.) Turn on Mipmap (this reduces quality for far away objects, saves VPU power)
    2.) If it still has problems, at your video card settings, change settings all for "Performance" or set settings which seems to benefit performance over quality. You want to minimize work for your CPU and VPU. Turn it down one notch at a time, (remember to keep your Final Fantasy XI video settings down when trying this, you want to eliminate the problem setting/configuration one at a time.)

    You may want to try some of these, if they are available for your video card, some options may not apply to you:
    -----2a.) You may want to turn off Antialiasing, or set it to the minimum.
    -----2b.) You might also want to disable Texture Sharpening or Anisotropic Filtering
    -----2c.) Changing the Mipmap settings to better performance.
    -----2d.) Increasing or decreasing the PCI Texture Memory Size.

    If when changing a setting, the problem goes away, that setting is your problem. Set all other settings back the way they were, and play with the problem settings. If when changing a setting, the problem is WORST, then put the setting back to the least problematic setting.

    3.) If that still fails, with all the settings down in Final Fantasy XI and your video driver settings at default or the way they were initially, shut off your computer and disconnect the power. Touch an unpainted portion of your computer CASE to discharge any static. Open the side of your computer and CAREFULLY feel how hot/warm your video card is (usually touching the heat sink carefully is sufficient). If it feels very hot, find a fan to keep the temperature down on your video card. Turn on your computer and try again.

    4.) If it still is a problem despite all the setting changes and above checklist, you may want to post about it or think about a different video card.
    Signature was intentionally left blank.

  • #2
    I cannot get FFXI to run in anything but software (640*480?) mode. Strangely the benchmark runs perfectly in high resolution. I'm using a geforce fx 5200 ultra, amd athlon xp1800, 256megs ram. So my hardware is powerful enough. Like I said I can get the FFXI bench to run fine but the game will not run in high res at all it just defaults to a horrible pixelated low res. I have tried messing with the config app but it makes no difference. Any advice?

    Comment


    • #3
      Hmmm....

      Ahh my memory card is only a 32MB ATI Rage 128 Ultra (WinXP)...
      The benchmark dosn't work, i have all the other requirments iw as wondering if it is worth the time to install the game or just wait for my new computer to come :3

      Comment


      • #4
        I suppose my PC is just lame ass... I tried all that and still my graphics are chuggy... I used to run this game pretty well except around the Auction House. Now it's chuggy when I'm in a party of 3 or more, or I get into towns, or places not so wide open, like Wadi. Open sreas I do OK in. *shrugs*

        I have:

        AMD Athlon 1800+ 1.53 Ghz
        512 DDR ram
        GeForce4 MX 440 Video Card with 64 megs of RAM
        Running Windows XP Professional

        Different resolutions and options in FFXI don't seem to help, either. I can run it at 640x480 and still chug like always. Texture resolutions don't seem to matter either.

        Any suggestions or ideas? :sweat:

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by NeoEndymnion
          I suppose my PC is just lame ass... I tried all that and still my graphics are chuggy... I used to run this game pretty well except around the Auction House. Now it's chuggy when I'm in a party of 3 or more, or I get into towns, or places not so wide open, like Wadi. Open sreas I do OK in. *shrugs*

          I have:

          AMD Athlon 1800+ 1.53 Ghz
          512 DDR ram
          GeForce4 MX 440 Video Card with 64 megs of RAM
          Running Windows XP Professional

          Different resolutions and options in FFXI don't seem to help, either. I can run it at 640x480 and still chug like always. Texture resolutions don't seem to matter either.

          Any suggestions or ideas? :sweat:
          I would say it's your video card.. your video card isn't as good as many of the other ones out there. Try buying a new video card.. that's what i would do.

          Comment


          • #6
            My GeForce4 Ti4600 died on me recently and I bought an ATI 9600XT to replace it.

            However I have so far not been able to play properly, as FFXI keeps dropping to the desktop.

            Can anyone help me?

            - Is there a way to see what caused the POL crash? (error log etc)
            - Does anyone with the same card have the same problem? If not, what driver version/configuration/resolution are you using?

            I tried installing the 7.83 driver version, as that's the version listed on the POL site, but that driver is too old (doesn't support my card).

            This really sucks - I'd hate to have wasted good money on a card (and on getting a damn HW conflict between it and my sound card resolved).


            EDIT: Found the problem - there were still a few remnants of the nVidia drivers on my system. Driver Cleaner was able to throw them out, after which things worked fine.
            Author of POLUtils (with forums here).

            Comment


            • #7


              Ill just be playing... suddenly the current sound playing will be restarted and playe about 3 times really fast likes its skipping then the game closes and my computer restarts. ( all this happens in about 3 seconds.

              No idea what is causing it, seeing if i need to clean my comp ( physically )

              If anyone else has had this problem and has a solution please reply XD

              Thanks
              Keldon - DRG/WAR - 62/31 - Retired
              Avengail - PLD/WAR - 60/30 - Current

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Video Card and Screen Problems thread.

                I'm assuming this would go here...

                Everything looks great on my comp in game...except characters. The background's clear and nice, but my Mithra is missing the back of her head and other parts of her, and my Elvaan is missing her entire head, as well as other pieces of her. It's very odd. the same parts are missing on other characters in the screen as well. Any ideas on what causes this? My vid card is a GeForce MX 4000, 128mb

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Video Card and Screen Problems thread.

                  Originally posted by Ashadera
                  I'm assuming this would go here...

                  Everything looks great on my comp in game...except characters. The background's clear and nice, but my Mithra is missing the back of her head and other parts of her, and my Elvaan is missing her entire head, as well as other pieces of her. It's very odd. the same parts are missing on other characters in the screen as well. Any ideas on what causes this? My vid card is a GeForce MX 4000, 128mb
                  Did you try the suggestions posted on the first thread yet?

                  Thanks Yyg!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Video Card and Screen Problems thread.

                    Hey guys. I've been playing around with the resolutions for the game and have a few questions you might be able to help me out with.

                    Firstly, I'm running on an Athalon XP 2500+, MMX, 3DNow, 1.8GH (whatever... I just copied all that) - 1 gig RAM, GeForce 4 MX 440 64Mb (yeah, yeah).

                    I built this machine about three years ago when the parts were good parts... not that they're bad parts now, just... you know.


                    Now, I know my card is doing well, despite what it is. Infact, she's done a lot of things that I was told she couldn't... all the latest DirectX's run great all around.

                    FFXI runs great in mid resolution and I'm able to coax it up to 1024x1024 Background resolution without MAJOR lag. Thing is, it does run a little slowly in crowded areas and in battles. It's noticably struggling.

                    So, anyone know how I could eek that extra performance out of the card? I can't upgrade just yet... It's really not in the budget for another few months. Especially considering my motherboards not PCIE, it's almost not worth it unless I'm getting a whole new machine. So, please hold off on the "ur cards crap, get sumting better"s. Should I bite the bullet and just run at 512x512 or is there a way I can up the ante and get the best setting?

                    Thanks
                    Resident Canuklehead

                    *Dong*

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Video Card and Screen Problems thread.

                      I'm having my own problem with my graphics card. Everything else works out fine however the windmills in Passhow Marshlands have some kind of error with the blades. Here's a screenshot.




                      I'm using the latest Catalyst Drivers from ATI and I've tried using various ones. However it still has this graphical glitch. My video card is an ATI Radeon 9200 more precisely, an XTASY Radeon 9200 SE 128 MB Video Card by Visiontek and powered with ATI Graphics. Only other difficulty at times would be with some transparent objects not acting transparent. Any help would be appreciated. According to SE they've recently increased compatibility with FFXI and Catalyst Drivers 5.13, I'm wondering if I should downgrade my drivers to that or not. Thank you.

                      (Sorry the picture's so dark, I didn't realize how dark it was when I took the snapshot a week ago.)

                      Asuran Roleplayer for Gauntlet and the Children of Altana RP Linkshells!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Video Card and Screen Problems thread.

                        Originally posted by SamusKnight2K
                        I'm having my own problem with my graphics card. Everything else works out fine however the windmills in Passhow Marshlands have some kind of error with the blades. Here's a screenshot.

                        I'm using the latest Catalyst Drivers from ATI and I've tried using various ones. However it still has this graphical glitch. My video card is an ATI Radeon 9200 more precisely, an XTASY Radeon 9200 SE 128 MB Video Card by Visiontek and powered with ATI Graphics. Only other difficulty at times would be with some transparent objects not acting transparent. Any help would be appreciated. According to SE they've recently increased compatibility with FFXI and Catalyst Drivers 5.13, I'm wondering if I should downgrade my drivers to that or not. Thank you.

                        (Sorry the picture's so dark, I didn't realize how dark it was when I took the snapshot a week ago.)
                        My first PC I used for FFXI had a ATI 9200 AGP and it seemed to have alot of glitches with it. My Playonline screen when updated to new drivers would pixelateish and run slow. If I used the drivers that came with the card it would be fine. When I changed that card to a evga 6600GT AGP, I had none of these issues. It seems that the SE does not keep up with current drivers or even compatibility to new cards like they should. There supported drivers are usually a couple of version's lower. I just built a new PC with a MSI 6800GS and now I get this sort of screen flickering both on my LCD and CRT (only in some areas, not all). Playing with all the setting and still cant fix the problem. No issues with other games I had so its a FFXI thing. I hope this helps.
                        Last edited by zerofighter777; 04-05-2006, 05:26 AM.

                        Which FF Character Are You?

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Video Card and Screen Problems thread.

                          sometimes when i try to start the game the only thing tht comes up is just a black screen what should i do to try to fix it cause i dont feel like trying all those things in the threade

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Video Card and Screen Problems thread.

                            if you have anti-anastilling and anistrophic filtering set to anything higher than 2, the pol viewer doesn't support it, I have that same problem, so I just have it set to application controlled. what kind of card are you using? system specs if you know them always helps out big time.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Video Card and Screen Problems thread.

                              SamusKnight2k it appears that the ATI drivers aren't processing the alpha mapping on the game textures. Do you have similar problems with summoned avatars?




                              Check out all of my 'art' over at DeviantArt.

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