Constant DirectX11 and Windows crashes while playing FFXIV

[RexItaliae]

Have you tried running it in borderless window silly question but im ticking off every possible avenue have you also tried using reshade ?

It crashes both in full screen and in borderless window (which I actually prefer as alt-tabbing when in full screen is a nightmare)... And no I've never used reshade or any other mod. I read that in general you want to disable all overlays and indeed the first thing I did every time I reinstalled Windows was to disable "game mode" from the Windows settings as well as the XBox bar overlay.

 

[ubuysa]

Then I tried to see how the game was doing with DX11 again and max specs except that I removed all shadows for all players except me. The crashing didn't stop, but it was much more stable, it would only crash once per session typically. Except for today, that it BSOD. Is there any chance I can bother @ubuysa once again, to have a look at the memory dumps and see if anything new came up, please? This time the error I got is actually different: it's a SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION.

I'm so sorry for being so demanding, but this is really ruining my gaming experience

Memory dump 04/03/2021 – Google Drive

drive.google.com

EDIT: Sadly I got another BSOD, with the same stop code, but this time the blue screen also included "What failed: dxgkml.sys". I added the memory.dmp resulting for this separately at the same link as MEMORY (1).DMP as well as its minidump

Well this is disappointing.

A SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION stop code is also very common and also almost always driver related. Your kernel dump does contain some possible new leads, although it still points very strongly at the game itself. The process in control at the time of the bug check was ffxiv_dx11.exe and I don't need to tell you what that is.

The stack trace for the active thread contains system function calls that appear to have been related to accessing the registry. They start with the normal nt!KiSystemServiceCopyEnd function call, which is how user mode code calls a kernel mode service and then we get the nt!NtOpenKeyEx call which is how the registry is accessed. This is followed by several function calls opening a registry object followed by several doing a registry compare (checking some registry value perhaps?). The final function call before the bug check is nt!CmpUnlockKcb and a KCB is a Key Control Block in the Windows registry.

The stack trace then appears to show a problem with the Windows registry. The registry hives are loaded into RAM at boot time, so all these registry function calls are RAM operations. Interestingly the exception code for the BSOD is 0xc0000005, which is a memory access violation. That doesn't mean necessarily that you have a RAM issue nor a registry issue, though it is possible that the game writes registry entries (that were being searched here) and these are corrupt somehow?

In addition there are two driver errors in the list of driver calls for the active thread; our old favorite nvlddmkm.sys (the Nvidia graphics driver) and wdfilter.sys - which is a component of Windows Defender. That has set me wondering whether Windows Defender is blocking some critical aspects of the way the game accesses the system services perhaps?

There are two different troubleshooting steps I'd like you to take now and I'll describe them in the order I think you should try them.

First let's try and ensure that Defender doesn't get in the way of the game. Open the Defender control panel and click on Virus & Threat Protection.

Under Virus & Threat Protection Settings, click on Manage Settings. Scroll down to Controlled Folder Access and click on Manage controlled folder access. If you have Controlled Folder Access turned on then please turn it off (for now). If it's already off then that's fine.

Under Exclusions, click on Add or Remove exclusions. Click on Add an exclusion and then Folder, now navigate to the folder in which the game executable files are stored and add that to the Defender exclusions.

Now from the main Defender screen, click on App & Browser Control and under Exploit protection, click on Exploit protection settings. The panel initially shows the System Settings, so click on Program Settings to see the program specific overrides. Mostly these are added automatically at installation time, so scan down the list looking for ffxiv_dx11.exe and any other FFxiv entries too. I suspect they won't be there (if they are, make a note of the settings and then modify them as I'm going to suggest). Click Add and then by program name and enter ffxiv_dx11.exe as the program name. In the list of settings click the Override System Settings box for all settings and ensure that all settings are turned off. This will stop Defender applying these security features to ffxiv_dx11.exe.

I would then reboot. I don't know whether that's necessary but it's always a wise move when changes have been made.

See how that goes for a day or two. Give this a good try before moving on to the second thing to try.

The second thing, and if the above doesn't help and despite Memtest running clean, I'd suggest you remove a stick of RAM and try running on just one stick for a few days. Then swap the RAM sticks over and try running just on the other stick for a few days. RAM can cause all sorts of problem issues and the only way to really test it fully is to take a stick out and see whether the problem goes away.

 

[RexItaliae]

Right, time for an update!

By the time @ubuysa wrote his last message, I had performed yet another clean installation of Windows from bootable media. This time I did not install absolutely anything that didn't come with Windows or Windows Update. In particular, I let it install the GPU drivers (version 456.71) it wanted through Windows Update, and I didn't manually update them. I downloaded the game and followed all the instructions to add it to the "safe list" of Windows Defender. All this last Friday, 5th March. And, believe it or not, it worked!... Almost.

The game, played in dx11 with almost every graphical setting at max, played beautifully. Not a single crash for days. Then on 7th March the game "sort of crashed", in the sense that the usual "ffxiv_dx11.exe" error message appeared, but weirdly this time the game kept running underneath it, whereas usually it freezes. I thought "well, that's weird, but maybe it's just a random thing".

Then on 9th March, it crashed directly to desktop without putting out any error message. Although far rarer, this is also an issue that other people have signalled online, so I thought "well, maybe it's just yet another random error".

Then today it BSOD, with stop code DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.
I uploaded, as usual, the MEMORY.dmp and the minidump for inspection, if Ubuysa is kind enough to be willing to get a look at it. Maybe it can give us new leads? In the meanwhile, I shall proceed with the second part of the plan, and remove one stick of RAM (I haven't so far because I was hoping that it was all an antivirus problem).

I really want to stress that the clean installation and the following of the instructions on Windows Defender has made a major difference on the stability of the game, so for this I'll be eternally grateful to Ubuysa already. <3

Memory dump 10/03/2021 – Google Drive

drive.google.com

EDIT: I should specify that I usually play a couple of hours a day. Previously the game used to crash at least once a day, now only three times (counting the BSOD) in 6 days. Progress has been made!

 

[ubuysa]

Right, time for an update!

By the time @ubuysa wrote his last message, I had performed yet another clean installation of Windows from bootable media. This time I did not install absolutely anything that didn't come with Windows or Windows Update. In particular, I let it install the GPU drivers (version 456.71) it wanted through Windows Update, and I didn't manually update them. I downloaded the game and followed all the instructions to add it to the "safe list" of Windows Defender. All this last Friday, 5th March. And, believe it or not, it worked!... Almost.

The game, played in dx11 with almost every graphical setting at max, played beautifully. Not a single crash for days. Then on 7th March the game "sort of crashed", in the sense that the usual "ffxiv_dx11.exe" error message appeared, but weirdly this time the game kept running underneath it, whereas usually it freezes. I thought "well, that's weird, but maybe it's just a random thing".

Then on 9th March, it crashed directly to desktop without putting out any error message. Although far rarer, this is also an issue that other people have signalled online, so I thought "well, maybe it's just yet another random error".

Then today it BSOD, with stop code DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.
I uploaded, as usual, the MEMORY.dmp and the minidump for inspection, if Ubuysa is kind enough to be willing to get a look at it. Maybe it can give us new leads? In the meanwhile, I shall proceed with the second part of the plan, and remove one stick of RAM (I haven't so far because I was hoping that it was all an antivirus problem).

I really want to stress that the clean installation and the following of the instructions on Windows Defender has made a major difference on the stability of the game, so for this I'll be eternally grateful to Ubuysa already. <3

Memory dump 10/03/2021 – Google Drive

drive.google.com

EDIT: I should specify that I usually play a couple of hours a day. Previously the game used to crash at least once a day, now only three times (counting the BSOD) in 6 days. Progress has been made!

Same error as ever, nvlddmkm.sys...

ffffa105`143c4278  fffff802`2e008e8c Unable to load image \SystemRoot\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_1c83a5d7cffd7bff\nvlddmkm.sys, Win32 error 0n2
 nvlddmkm+0x1f8e8c

Definitely try with one RAM stick at a time, run it that way for a week, or until you get another BSOD, before swapping to the other stick. Then run that stick for a week.

If it BSODs on both sticks and since it seems that Defender was having some sort of impact, I think it might be worth turning Defender off completely (and temporarily) for a few days to see whether that allows the game to run. Got to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Security > Virus & Threat Protection > Virus & Threat Protection Settings: Manage Settings, and turn all the features in there off. There is little impact in doing this as long as you use the PC only for running the game. Try that tempoarily for a week playing the game and see whether it helps.

 

[RexItaliae]

Roger! I'll do that, thank you. I assume I'll keep the same graphics driver?
Also, technical question: when I run with only one RAM stick, does it matter in which of the four slots it is?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Roger! I'll do that, thank you. I assume I'll keep the same graphics driver?
Also, technical question: when I run with only one RAM stick, does it matter in which of the four slots it is?

Windows won't apply the correct GPU driver, that has to be manually installed, the system isn't configured until it's installed from nvidia / amd.

Just running one stick needs to be in DIMM A2 (Page 1-9 of the manual)

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1200/TUF_GAMING_B460-PLUS/E16866_TUF_GAMING_B460-PLUS_UM_V2_WEB.pdf

 

[RexItaliae]

Windows won't apply the correct GPU driver, that has to be manually installed, the system isn't configured until it's installed from nvidia / amd.

Really? But the driver it installed is one of those you can download from the Nvidia's website when you select my gpu, signed by Nvidia and all of that. It's not the latest as it was released in September 2020, but it should be compatible. No?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Really? But the driver it installed is one of those you can download from the Nvidia's website when you select my gpu, signed by Nvidia and all of that. It's not the latest as it was released in September 2020, but it should be compatible. No?

No, it's not up to date.

Windows update has never been up to date with GPU drivers and they're not the same version as on the manufacturer website, it's a basic driver package.

It's standard practice to install gpu drivers direct from manufacturer, always has been unless you're using integrated graphics.

 

[RexItaliae]

Right, I see! Then I suppose I'll get rid of it with DDU and then install the latest manually from Nvidia's website. Not that it matters in my case to be up to date, because Nvidia has never released a driver fixing anything regarding Final Fantasy xiv, but since you say the driver I've got isn't the same that I'd download from the website with the same number, I'll follow your advice. Thank you