Windows98 & FFXI Problem

So I've inherited a pretty good PC that has Windows98 on it.

I've never really used Windows98 before but it looks pretty similar to WindowsXP and Vista.

When I try to play FFXI though I get an error: "FFXI-3100 Cannot connect to lobby server" I can get updates, check mail on POL just fine, look at my billing info, etc. I just can't get into the game. It happens right when I have to push "Accept" at that deep blue full screen.

I looked this up on the web and an error 3100 means that it means stuff is getting lost between my PC and the server. SE tech support hasn't been able to give me any specific advice other than "It must be your PC" kind of remarks.

However I have an Xbox360, A PS3 and a PS2 hooked up to the same router and they can play FFXI just fine.

My cable modem company is Comcast.

Anyone ever run into this and/or have any ideas about how I can solve this problem?

That's because it is.

Windows 98 and Final Fantasy XI don't mix. The networking compatability of 98 and XP are vastly different, to the extent where Windows 98 struggles to maintain even a constant internet connection, let alone a connection to a server like with Final Fantasy XI.

The best advice anyone is going to give you is more than likely to upgrade from 98 to a higher operation system.



This alone confirms that it's your computer causing the problem and not something Square Enix's end.

i loled

Windows 98 >.> What year am I in, quick someone slap me!

buy a PC with windows 98 on it = ancient PC



well as it may look similar its not, windows XP is a glorified, fancy version of Windows NT and windows vista is just another of microsoft's mistakes, like um... windows ME lmao, also windows 98 is nothing like xp might look similar but they rin totally different. anyway windows xp and vista are based aroung the windows NT workstaton alot more stable than windows 98 well XP is vista is just a joke. going on by that you bought it with windows 98 on it then i have my doubts if XP will run on it.



this may be due to the fact that the operating system was not ment to handle high speed broadband, this in turn, after reading just below, will not be able to cope with the communication speed between you and SE servers. this resulting in lots of lost data within the communicateion. last time i remember i think windows 98 counld not handle more than a 512 connection. might work on a dial up then if not then i donno, prob the file system is FAT ot FAT32 and windows 98 dont support NTFS, infact it may not even see the drive.



some of which i explained a bove, but dude SE is probably laughing thier *** of at you, no meanin any disrespect, but they wont support a redundant OS (OS = operating system if you dont know) well put it this way Microsoft has stopped giving support on it, do you really thing anyone is gonna make a game compatable with windows 98? if it runs on it then it runs on it but if it dont, forget about it



simple answer, the game was designed to run on the games console's independantly



the ISP company wont matter, i donno comcast, who they are or how they run thier system as i am from the UK. they easy way to solve this problem. well if you got a spare hard drive, then swap the one in the Windows 98 machine then install windows xp on it, if it runs then great, if it dont, then you wasted your cash if that was your intentions.

i donno if you understand most of the tech stuff but here is the simple formula

PC + installed Windows 98 = crappy PC

no disrespect, trying to run the game on a 600MHz processor with 256mb memory (might not be they spec of the PC you have) well um... the hampster inside that thing would give up and die, lmao just a lil sarcasm there

Where to, baby? I'll be gentle, I promise <3

do hope that helps ya out, i know it is a bit long and might seem like i am having a go, but i am not, it just wont work on windows 98 the system's compatibility is totally wrong

Something you may "try". Win98 has a older version of the TCP stack. Being MS no longer support win98, your only support is Google.com. I would update win98 to all latest patches. BTW, knowing what version this is helps too. Win98 had I think I recall two different versions. One had most of the newer winsock's and TCP stuff, other had absolutely no hope for recovering from what MS did to it. I do agree with the above, what I will suggest is putting Win2000 on it. Win2k was considered a Client OS. It'll have all capabilities and TCP communication's you'll need. Furthermore, it won't suck down your 600 mghz 256 mb ram pc as bad as XP or Vista would. Win2k IMO was the most solid OS MS ever put out. Too bad XP ruined it all ;;. Lastly I'm gonna end with. Win98 was popular for working for about 40 days then blue screening for no reason causing your to reinstall it. With that said, do you really want to reinstall FFXI every month?? BLEH!! GL dude.

hehe who says I like it gentle *grin*

Windows 2000 is one of the most stable OS's out there but NT is even better, dont bother with NT, as ya said about 2 versions of win98, yeah there was 2 realeases, Win98 OS2 is the better verson for compatibility. but as mentioned change it to windows 2000, thats gonna be your best bet.

now as for the reinstallaion, here is a way around doing the updates for ffxi, if you have a PS with the fame on it already then after you install the game, copy the contents of the updated game the the PC and overwrite the data, you will have to update a couple files but beats the 4 hour update time.

if you dont have this option then i suggest this, install then update, exit FFXI and make a completeback up of the FFXI folder install directory, if you have to re install then all you do is, do the installation, then before loading up the POL for the first time, copy the back up to the install and overwite, it might take 2 hours or so but thats 2 hours less than the update time.

i know this works cos that is what a friend of mine does, would you rather have 2-2.5 hours wait to copy the files accross or 4 hours waut for it to update everything from SE. granted it will ask to update, but its only something like 20 files in total that only tkes 5 mins. if you have not thought of this then, its worth making a backup just incase.

something that SE has not mentioned in any manuals is how to back up your macro's. imagine all the time you have spent perfecting your macro's. well what to do is, go to your character selection screen and do the followong:-

XBOX
select the character and press:-
Backup: hold LB and press the left analogue stick button
Restore: hold RB and press the right analogue stick button

PC
select the character and press:-
Backup: press and hold (keep then held down) Ctrl + Alt + Shift then the "B" key
Restore: press and hold (keep then held down) Ctrl + Alt + Shift then the "R" key

PS2/3
i dont know, use the POL web chat and ask them, they will tell you

you will be asked if you want to restore or back up your data, just select yes

what this will do is it will save all your macro's and map locators on the SE server available for you to restore at any time, this allowing you to go on to PC/Xbox, download your macro's etc. no more typeing them all out again and saves ALOT of your time. also nice if you are redoing all your macro's incase you mess things up

Indeed, but then again, if the computer runs W98, it probably got shitty hardware, and will probably run FFXI at 15fps in 256x256. I bet this thing will run FFXI just as bad as my Acer aspire one, or maybe worse.
It'll be playable, but i would stick to your 360 or PS2\3 if i were you.

when I bought this game when it first came out in the US, I had a win 98 pc and it worked on it but the graphics card was not compatible. So I waited about a few months to buy a new PC with upgraded hardware for it to really work.

If its giving errors, it may just be that since the game has basically updated to 2009, its not going to work for that pc. Might be able to upgrade some stuff or get a better pc that can handle ffxi

maybe if you select "Run As" windows 95 it will work

edit sorry wasn't able to portray my sarcasm in my words

Out of some morbid curiosity, can you post the specs? Probably won't matter much, but I need a good lol this morning...

At any rate, I have to give you credit for finding a working computer that can't run FFXI, that sure as hell can't be easy anymore.

Here's what you do:

Play FFXI on your 360
Run your Windows 98 PC for Wiki/FFXIAH.com

You can't go wrong with that.

(Unless of course you are one of those lazy players that rely on Windower add-ons.)

Hmm...

So to all the PC geniuses out there talking about the incompatibility of Windows98. I have a FFXI game box with Windows98 SE listed as one of the supported operating systems. Also SE tech support did say that the game was originally published with Windows98 as the most common OS when it was released. Their exact quote was that "in theory" it should work, so they couldn't explain why it didn't. Windows 98 SE was released in 1999 I think and there were plenty of them laying around when FFXI was released.

Below are the system specs on my FFXI box (it only has Zilart as an included expansion btw)

Windows 98/98SE/Me/2000/XP
Pentium III 800MHz
128MB RAM
DirectX 8.1
GeForce 3
Sound Card
32X CD-ROM Drive
4.5GB Disk Space
56K modem

The hardware on this PC is pretty far above this (1.13Ghz Pentium 3, Radeon 9700, 384MB RAM, 3 80GB HDDs, X-Fi soundcard and DX 9.0c)

So with that said, the problem only comes into play when POL tries to open the actual game full screen.

All of the other functions in the game (POL email, the support menus, etc.) work fine.

Also, there are a lot of posts online that talk about Verizon blocking the network stuff that FFXI does and that this problem required a call to them to open some ports up. I never saw Comcast as an ISP that needed to do this but I put it in there just in case.

If there's anyone out there who actually knows what they're talking about please help me out.

OR:
Play FFXI on 360. Use computer with Windows 98 to put your Yoohoos and Starcrunch on for easy access.

not a DX9 issue, if you remember, DX9 was actually releases when WIN98 was supported. i think it will be a driver issue then might wanna update all the drivers, also check the system properties and check if your running OS2 or not, if its not OS2 then your kinda screwed, also ffxi needs more than 4.3 gig space lmao.

K, please read this again. Thank you for the second edition comment. That means your win98 is in fact compatible or at least would have latest TCP at that time which was compatible with WinNT. So, now what you may wanna try is patch 98 to latest patches, as described above, as well check you network connection to see what protocols and client you're using. I.E Client for MS networks or Client for netware networks. Really sounds like a TCP communication error to me. My two cents..

Even if you do get this running... you'll lag heavily ANYWHERE you go ingame with 1.1ghz and radeon 9700. Even the Doons and lolqufim are heavy lag areas now what with the shitty FOV system.

This PC isn't worth your time, seriously. I just bought a 2ghz pentium, 256mb geforce, 256mb ram, 80gb PC off ebay for $45.... and even that will lag badly.

Best advice is check out ebay, you can get some decent PC's there gently used and shipped for a reasonable price...

You could also visit lolBestBuy, occasionally they have ok deals on PC's.

Tho I'm with these other peeps, if you can live without windower, play on a console.

Also, you have FFXI for 3 systems and now want it on PC? Your planning on botting? or having multiple characters on follow while your PL levels them? If so please don't junk up the servers even more...

/flameON

honestly, there's a billion things that could be causing the problem. for all the fools out there talkin trash about 98... i believe FF11 was released in 2001. that would also b the year that XP is released, so FF was meant to work on 98 obviously...
the computer doesn't sound like a bad machine, although i find it hard to believe some of the specs you list on that 98 machine. someone really didn't want that thing to go out of date if you ask me... 80gig hdds didn't exist back then, much less having 3 of them... and a radeon 9700 is a card that was developed in the early 2000s... and then the X-Fi sound card??? those are kinda new... lol. sure it's not a sound blaster?
to me the first idea that comes to mind like many posters is networking issues with FF. when 98 came out, networking for PCs was far from perfect...
I would also add a bit of memory if you're actually serious about getting this computer to run FF. other than these two suggestions i can't say much... i find that most companies don't know their own error codes, so contacting SE of course does jack squat. my only other advice would b to slap windows 2000 or higher on it (make sure drivers for everything are available first)

This should be able to run XP even, but install 2K on it and you should have no problems at all really. networking on 98 can be shitty at times =/

I'm glad you said that Ziggz, after using Windows98 its lightning fast compared to Vista and tbh it's about as stable. XP is pretty stable but slower...

Anyway, I figured out the soundcard is actually a SBLive and not the X-Fi. My brother (who gave the PC to me) says that it's hit or miss going beyond 384Mb of RAM. Going to 512 caused the PC to lock-up.

I tried re-installing and that was crazy fast in W98 but I ran into the same problem.

I found something on the interwebs about some kind of routing table problem that SE claimed they fixed (the post was in 2003) that was specific to PCs and not the PS2. It was hard for me to decipher the posts but I couldn't find any other post in the same time period that complained about this...

The only other thing I can think of is that I have to install the CoP, ToAU and WotG expansions over our home LAN from another PC since the Windows98 PC only has CD-ROM drives and no DVD drives. The original game and Zilart are on CD though. I'm not sure if that's the cause either.

The reason I'm doing this is so that I can run windower finally and get the unlimited macros. I've seen FFXi on Vista and it runs pretty poorly. XP was better.

Fools for being correct...

There's an interesting concept. Winter, the problem is Windows 98. It doesn't have networking support that higher operating systems do; operating systems that simply automatically detect the correct configurations needed to route Final Fantasy XI's servers to your computer. Windows 98 does not do this, nor will it ever no matter what tweaking you do.

Unless you can find out the specific port information and the necessary configurations needed to configure your network connection in Windows 98, it just won't keep a stable connection.

You can take Ziggz's advice if you like and keep trying, but you're just wasting you're time.

This has got to be a troll, but in case it's not...

SE discontinued support for windows 95, 98 and ME on July 31st 2005. FFXI won't run on it.

FFXI used to run on it, but with the engine upgrade to allow windowing, and all the new stuff they've added in the last 4 years, it doesn't work any more.

And once again, install W2K and you wont have that problem anymore.

As Anastriana said, ffxi dont support 98 anymore.

i am going to say this DONT sacrifice good game play from Xbox360 over some program like windower. i mean it, you try playing on that junk you call a PC then, expect to crash all the time coz the memory will fill up sooooo fast you would not even get 10 feet. seriously i do mean it, that may be the spec on first realease but things and technowlogy has changed since then.

anyone knows what Whitegate lag is like you would not last 2 mins there with out the PC saying "*** you"

I run FFXI on Vista 64-bit and it runs like a freaking champ. Got the graphics buffer doubled and everything kicked to high, running fraps recording in full frame (1280x1024) doesn't slow down my framrate 1 bit, ventrilo, various hardware monitors in the sidebar, all that ***.

I don't think the issue is Vista necessarily, I think the issue is the hardware most of the time. Vista needs a lot to run. Someone trying to run it on a single core processor with 1 gig of ram and slow *** system bus mobo is obviously going to have less then stellar results.

To put it in perspective: I have a Quad-Core Q6600, 4 GBs of DDR2 800 memory, dual ATI HD 4870 512 MB DDR3 video cards in crossfire, and a Western Digital high speed hard drive...and I scored a 5.6 out of 10 on the Vista experience. I'd like to see an actual 10 computer...it's gotta be like the HAL 9000 lol

Wooooooo you fail @ rough "back rubs"