Screen Glitches Whilst Playing FFXI

This is less of a cry for help than it is a collection of thoughts.

I recently purchased a new video card for my girlfriend and proceeded to install it. After some minor issues in Windows Vista I finally got stable drivers with the computer.

Now, upon loading PlayOnline, you wouldn't notice that anything was wrong. However, when I logged into the actual FFXI program, the screen paused every few seconds, for a period of less than a second. This problem is consistent no matter what settings or resolution, area, type of connection to the internet (wireless or plugged in to box directly), or population of players on the screen. Even in my char's moghouse the glitches would continue AT THE SAME PACE as the middle of Whitegate AH.

Now here's the REAL catch. While scouring the internet for people like me with this problem I've discovered two fairly consistent things.

A: The user had purchased a new NVidea graphics card.
AND/OR
B: The users FPS stayed consistent during such glitches.

The first problem would lead you to believe something that probably is'nt true: NVidea don't like FFXI (aka craptacular drivers) OR that the graphics cards they purchased were newer models of much older builds.

This cannot be true because I know many people who play FFXI with very old NVidea cards without any problems.

Furthermore, MY CARD IS A RADEON (albeit a lowish end one).

Now to discuss troubleshooting fail "B". This not-so-problem really leads me to believe that this is anything but a graphics card or performance issue. After tinkering with drivers and in-game settings I have managed to REDUCE the appearance of glitches, however, it still occurs. In my mind, this is less a step in the right direction, so much as a SLOWER step in the WRONG direction.

Are you ready for the real kicker?

I updated this machine (after not being used for almost a year) by simply overwriting its files with the files of a more recently updated machine. This machine that I got the files from was also having these issues - although not as bad.

Also, the machine I got the files from was MASSIVELY more powerful than the machine i copied the files to.

I'm putting this post out there to help compile thoughts with anyone else on the internet who might find this. I encourage you to register so we might be able to discuss this issue and find a resolve, or at least understand why it happens.

Also for the record, I have run defrags, ingame error checks, MEMtest, and everything under the sun to try to determine the nature of the issue to no avail.

I've had this same issue the past few days. I eventually solved it by going to my BIOS.

There was a feature called "Thermal Control Mode"
Having it set to "Performance" would lag FFXI only a few seconds after I would log into it.

The symptom was the same. I'd log in. I could run around just fine for 5 seconds and then my fan would start and the system would just "Seize" up at almost set intervals. If you have such an option set it to "Silent"

If you know the maker of your BIOS and version or able to give the PC mfgr and model I'd be glad to help you look.

Come to think of it, it is quite possible BOTH the computers run off of Phoenix BIOS.

Her's is an EMachine T5224

Mine is a homebrew machine, and I don't really know the board off hand. (not so willing to take it apart)

Ill see what I can find out, but lower end machines such as hers tend to simplify the BIOS to restrict user-error (or just to make it extra cheap) >.>

Thermal control mode, huh? Heat goes up - speed goes down causing graphics to cripple. That could be applied to almost any removable part of the board o.o CPU, Graphics card, or RAM >.>

Forgot to mention, GFs GPU has no fan, but I've not really seen the need for slower, older cards. Excuse for them to collect dust and die faster it seems. (just thought i'd mention it lol)

Nah heat likely isn't the issue. More of the setting being turned on may be putting a heavier load on your processor. So far I've researched her model and there is no owners manual on that particular pc on their site.

You can enter the setup utility at the start of POST and should be able to give the BIOS mfgr and version. From their I'm sure I can find some sort of documentation.

It's entirely possible that the default BIOS settings could be causing the conflict. I'll keep looking for possible documentation with the info you provided though.

After doing some research I found the possible layout for the Emachine Bios from tracking down it's chipset.

http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/biosglossarybymenu_v13.pdf

Page 16 covers all of the thermal control settings. I'd turn system fan control off and try it out.

Some of the power management settings look suspect but we should see if fan control is where your issue is at first.

I did some more thinking about your situation. I was able to further improve my machines particular performance by using the Catalyst Control Center.

You can download that from AMD's site if you don't have it already.
If you don't want to dig into the guts of this thing I'd suggest just going to the "Standard Settings" screen and leave it set to performance.

I however changed a little more an got great results. On the Adaptive Anti-Aliasing screen I have it set to enabled and have that set to "Performance".

On the Anisotropic Filtering I have it set currently to "Use Application Settings".

For Catalyst AI the Disable option is unchecked. The slider is set to advanced.

For Mipmap detail level I've got it set to the second level of performance.

I still think my BIOS suggestion can still help but this may help more.


Oh and lastly make sure this is running prior to running FF each time so it can optimize your card.

There sure might be several reasons for your problem, and I am sure you checked alot of forums on this issue allready.
But you might want to try something unusal, because according to your description I think this might solve your issue:

Check how many usb devices you have connected to your pc.
Especially ones like wirelesskeyboard, wirless mouse. For a test i would reccomend you once disconnect as many devices as possible, and for a 2nd test plug everyting into usb you can find dto connect, and check if the glitches increase or decrease.

Hopefully this might help you to point you into the right direction.

Sounds like a power supply problem, easiest way to fix that is go from your current one to a higher output. What you seem to be experiencing is a lack of power flow which will cause the "glitches" that you see, happens a lot on older systems because they weren't meant to use more powerful hardware.
I'm no expert though and its just a thought, so just look into it, maybe it will help.

I had this same problem a few years ago(I had Nvidia cards though). I had stable FPS but I would notice a half second tick every few seconds. I had to do a few things.

#1 Turn off the UAC

#2 make sure you have the correct PoL version.(32/64 bit)

#3 try to see what the CPU usage is at when it is doing the glitch.

#4 Make sure you have updated drivers from ATI

@Vicente: I'm pretty sure its not a power supply issue (I'm the girlfriend). Before Mune started to install the graphics card I had no issues with the game glitching in the same pattern as Mune's machine had been.

To try and narrow out any process potentially being the issue then you can download and run Process Monitor. Found here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

To my understanding this app also works on Vista though I have not personally tried it on Vista yet. Before you launch this app try to close everything out that have running otherwise it will take forever to finish it's initial scan which may "appear" as if it's stopped responding (if it looks locked up just be patient with it). It gives a VERY detailed log of running processes and registry accesses. Basically try and time when the hickups occur to the exact second if possible and look it up in Process Monitor (after the app has already been running). See if the same process is popping up when these FFXI 'hickups' occur.

If there does not appear to be any link in the processes then it's most likely a driver issue or some sort of BIOS auto throttling the CPU down. Some motherboards will automatically auto throttle down the CPU speed if it hits a certain threshold in an attempt to cool it down.

"whilst" :D

Here's the site where you can download the optimization software. The driver is included but to get the boost you want the software.

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

Use the settings I mentioned above in my post and it should work just fine.

Recent update fixed glitching problem in main machine. (so even as limited as the testing was - yes, it was a problem with FFXI and not my hardware.)

Fixed her machine as well.