Fatal Direct X Error research and fixes - Lemmy.world
If you’ve been crashing in FFXIV and are greeted by the error “Fatal Direct X
Error: 11000002”, then hopefully this will help. Fatal Direct X Error: 11000002
is, unfortunately, a GENERIC error. There’s nothing specific about it, other
than DirectX had a problem with the client and crashed. Square-Enix doesn’t
allow any debugging, and doesn’t seem to be interested in digging deeper into
this error. They always tell you to give them a readout of your specs, and
re-verify your game files. Then they fade away if that doesn’t work, because
they don’t know what else to do, either. There’s simply too many factors in a
generic error to know. I’ve been dealing with this for about a year. I work in
the IT industry, and this is what I’ve found so far (I have edited this down, so
not all efforts are shown). I have an AMD CPU, a Ryzen 7 3700X, and the R5700XT
GPU. However, I also had this error with an Nvidia 1070. This started right
around the time Endwalker launched. Things I’ve tried that didn’t seem to make a
difference: 1) Switching GPUs 2) Replacing and Upgrading memory 3) Changing
timing of memory in BIOS 4) Updating BIOS 5) Updating/Downgrading GPU drivers 6)
Uninstalling Adrenaline software 7) Turning off ALL other programs on a fresh
boot up 8) Removing overlays (Discord, AMD Adrenaline junk, closing Steam even
though it’s not running through Steam) 9) Using GPU Studio drivers (AMD) 10)
Using GPU MS graphics drivers 11) Disabling SMT (AMD CPU Simultaneous
Multithreading) 12) Reinstalling DirectX 13) Reinstalling/re-verifying FFXIV
game files Things I did that seemed to help: 1) Disabling Real Time Reflections
and Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSBAO+ Quality) (these are in-game options)
- turns out, SSBAO is very intensive and causes frequent crashing if you’re
prone to these errors already. This made the biggest difference and increased my
time between crashes. 2) Capping frame rate at 1:1 instead of Unlimited. If you
don’t have a 1:1 option, Unlimited is likely a better choice. That’s what I
found on my 1070. 3) Making sure that both monitors used the same cable method
(DisplayPort) and thus could have the same refresh rate. I originally used on
DisplayPort and one HMDI - despite having two of the same monitors, this limited
HDMI’s frame rate and caused more crashes. You want all monitors on the same
refresh rate, especially if you change focus from the game to something else. 4)
Turn off Full Screen Enhancements in the Properties of the FFXIV launcher
shortcut. 5) UNDERVOLTING the 5700XT via Adrenaline menu - if it didn’t crash my
system, I had less fatal directx errors this way 6) Turning off xBox gaming
overlay in Windows 7) Turning off Game Mode in Windows - this supposedly “Helps
achieve a more stable frame rate depending on the specific game and system” but
in practice seemed to hamper FFXIV performance. Things I did that made it worse:
1) Running video on my second monitor/switching focus to that monitor 2)
Switching to Windowed Mode (Fullscreen or Borderless Windowed mode worked
slightly better) Clues I learned along the way: 1) Inside most cities and other
high-intensity areas that Square-Enix can predict, they seem to cap fps or
effects for stability. So I rarely crashed in Limsa or the Golden Saucer.
However, I most commonly crashed in dungeons, raids, and trials. Phase 2 of the
Ultima Weapon in the MSQ Roulette was very common. 2) After running sfc/scannow
and rebooting, the next two crashes gave me a blue screen and actual memory .DMP
files. They said the graphics card had “invalid fence IDs”. This means that the
GPU returned results either too fast, or too slow, from what the CPU was
expecting and allotted. The BSODs happened much faster, about 10-20 minutes into
play. Not like a slow buildup of hours like before. This time, it seemed to
indicate that something was checking for data slower than the GPU could push out
results. Meaning, the GPU was processing too fast for its own good. So I
undervolted the GPU. I have seemed to stay more stable, but this didn’t fix the
problem completely. 3) I also had a problem with sound cutout in Frontlines when
playing Seal Rock - and it wouldn’t restart even if I restarted my audio
services. Turns out, FFXIV uses a lower-level access method to access the sound
drivers directly instead of going through Windows services. This is controlled
by “exclusive access” which you can actually see in your sound options in
Windows. You want FFXIV to have exclusive access. And “Give Priority”. I had to
disable my monitors as audio devices in Device Manager (DisplayPort can send
audio, like HDMI). Even though they had no speakers, FFXIV was momentarily
confused on which device to use. It wouldn’t repair itself until I closed and
reopened the game. I disabled my GPU from being an audio source. This left me
with my motherboard’s Realtech driver as the sole source of audio, so there was
no more confusion. I also turned off my Gamepad options in the FFXIV menu, which
apparently also does something with audio. Why do I bring this up? Because I
suspect the video runs the same way - bypassing Windows control. So when you use
all these new Windows features, they just interfere with communication between
the game and your hardware. Turning off as much of it as possible is ideal. If
you troubleshoot with that in mind, you’ll likely have better success. My
solution: I tested again by switching graphics cards. I put my old 1070 card
back in, and haven’t crashed since, even when I turn on Real Time Reflections
and SSAO again. The frame rate suffers, but I can tell that it renders better.
Real Time Reflections specifically looks better than with the AMD setup. While I
believe that this is not a problem exclusive to AMD GPUs or even the 5700xt, it
does seem like it exacerbates the problem. The RX5700xt just has poor drivers
and poor hardware (the GPU screws can’t get tight enough to hold the heatsink on
fully). I think my other configuration issues like the two different cables
causing two different refresh rates caused my crashes on the 1070 initially. In
the end, I bought another graphics card (4070) and haven’t had an issue. I
suspect other AMD cards would probably be ok as well, if their drivers were
written properly. There’s a lot of problems with the RX5700xt physically (short
screws can’t keep the heat sink on the chip well) and driver-wise. I hope this
helps somone else out there!
