Crash on exiting POL (Crash Dump)

[shadowkrusha]

Windower 4 is constantly crashing when exiting.

This happens if I unload the modules before exiting and if I don't.

Here is the crash dump https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9xdi2ZKaURsZTltTlZmbFZabms/edit?usp=sharing

Here is the end of the console from windbg https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9xdi2ZKaURsVm1UQ3JIOXhKams/edit?usp=sharing

[tobikuma]

Also having the same issue.

[ithorien]

Most likely having the same issue.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6-1F6d1fvjfSmpRV3lDXzBhcG8/edit?usp=sharing

[TaimMeich]

Same issue here.

[Ihellmasker]

We are aware of the crash on close issues, but this is of the lowest priority, when you're exiting the game it doesn't really mater if it crashes, we'd rather fix other issues first.

[Wadus]

I am having an issue when closing FFXI also. As soon as I hit the Exit button on the main menu, the game crashes. Here is my dump:

http://www.megafileupload.com/en/file/410798/crashonexit-dmp.html

Thanks for all the great work!

[wildsprite]

I'm having the same issue, windower 4 freezes on shutdown with or without any plugins or addons loaded, honestly keeping this low priority if it is not just crashing anymore is kind of ridiculous, I realize you want to fix other things honestly, but this has gone from being a minor annoyance to a pain, the only way I can close FFXI(pol.exe) is to kill it from the task manager

I was fine with it being low priority when it was just crashing, I'm okay with that, but having it stay open on my computer till I KILL it from the task manager I'm very annoyed with

[Ihellmasker]

I'm sorry that you disagree with our prioritising of this, but it will not change. I would like to propose that you make use of the //terminate function to force close your game rather than shutdown if you have this problem constantly.

As it stands, we have no idea whats causing this issue, none of the posts have given any information that shows us what the problem is, and all the crash dumps refer to things that aren't even related to Windower. So forgive us if we can't work out whats wrong and would rather fix the crashes while playing than problems when leaving the game. I personally leave the game once a day, which is when I'm going to bed.

[IBHalliwell]

Saw same issue. "Fixed" it by making several changes. Turned off all "add-on" and all but the "basic" (came with 3.4) plug-ins plus added a boarder to the POL window. As I said, several changes. Originally, I was running with ALL the plug-ins on, several of the add-on(s) on, and no boarder.

[Subadai]

Crash dump: http://files.bluegartr.com/9aeeb3a34f06d5e60bc75527b7cfc8f7.zip

Win7, launcher 4.0.4867.25482, hook 4.0.0.31 Plugins: binder, consolebg, distance, logger, silence, statustimer, text, timers, timestamp, tparty Addons: none

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

Binder Text TParty Timestamp Timers Silence Logger Distance ConsoleBG StatusTimer Insert 3.757684E-09 1

[MelSumner]

I know most use /terminate but using /shutdown causes pol to crash.

Unhandled exception at 0x77a88e19 in pol.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation writing location 0x00000014.

disassembly points to: 77A88E19 inc dword ptr [eax+14h] in ntdll.dll

[z16]

Still need a crash dump, can't do much with this info. But this issue will likely not be fixed.

[BMoshier]

z16 wrote:

Still need a crash dump, can't do much with this info.

Sorry for showing my ignorance, but once I have a dump where should I put it for you?

BTW, I'm able to reproduce this issue with shutdown (menu or command line) 100% of the time on 3 systems, using Windows 7 and the latest versions of Windower 4, plugins, FFXI, and PlayOnline.

Thus far turning off plug-ins does not seem to affect the crashing.

---

But this issue will likely not be fixed.

First: If this is the case, how do you recommend people logout safely and end FFXI / POL so the Windower4 doesn't create an application crash event log entry / dump file?

Sorry to hear 100% of the time crashes aren't important. The reason it is important to me is simple: These dumps are affecting two applications I use on my systems. They are:

1) System Mechanic version 12.X 2) Dell Detect

Both of these applications are tracking the stability of the system and responding to them. In the case of System Mechanic it is not just generating reports and warnings, but also trying to fix the issue (how I'm not sure).

As for Dell Detect, I'm getting messages and the Dell site tracking the systems report they are very unstable because of so many application dumps in a short period of time.

[IBHalliwell]

BMoshier wrote:

Sorry for showing my ignorance, but once i have a dump where should I put it for you?

I'm not sure if this changed, but at one time the article at:

https://github.com/Windower/Issues/wiki/Creating-crash-dumps-with-Windbg

had the latest information. There are two types of application dumps and I'm not sure if the developers will accept both or just one of them. These dump creation methods are:

(1) Created by the Windows Debugger (2) Created by Windows (itself) for applications.

The above link has information about #1 and the information below is about #2.

URL: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb787181%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Basically, you need to add to the registry a new key and then (as you desire configure it). The new key is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDump

NOTE: It is possible to create dump values specific to an application to override the default and/or the global values you set up. An example might be to put the POL.exe dumps in the directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\FFXI_POL_Dumps

As for uploading, I haven't found any specific place they want you to put the dump. The earlier article suggests any public large size website. If you use FTP to upload, don't forget to use BINARY.

[z16]

There is no real recommended way to do it, most people use //terminate to instantly terminate the process (which is what I'd recommend personally, but some people don't like it because only proper logout will preserve inventory sorting, if that bothers you). This should not create a crash dump of any kind. I'm not aware of any specific software that tracks system stability, so I cannot comment on that.

We know that it is easy to reproduce, but it's still hard to track and we don't see it as a real issue because of the aforementioned //terminate, and since a) we have a significant amount of other work to do and b) the issue is already fixed on our current Windower 5 build, we don't see a reason to invest much effort into trying to fix this for Windower 4.

As for the crash dumps, you can either upload it to one of the myriad file hosters on the internet or host it on your own Dropbox/Google Drive/Skydrive/whatever account. But like I said it's kinda moot for this particular issue, as we already have some and the error was still not easy to track down, and since we lack incentive to actually try to fix it, it doesn't do anyone much good.

[IBHalliwell]

Hello z16,

I'm not aware of any specific software that tracks system stability, so I cannot comment on that. Just FYI: I think he mentioned two of them: 1) System Mechanic, which is a product by Iolo.com One can read more about it at: http://www.iolo.com/products/system-mechanic/ 2) Dell Detect I don't know where to look at it on the net.

I know it came with my Dell computers preinstalled. I access mine using my Dell account and it shows me how each system is doing and each individual hardware component and its current status and stability.

the issue is already fixed on our current Windower 5 build,

Ah, wasn't this true also for the Windower 4 build at this point? If so . . .

As for //terminate, I found it messes other stuff other than the inventory, such as macro changes.

Anyway, whatever you guys want to do is fine as it is your time.

[IBHalliwell]

Hi again to z16:

Well, just in case you do find some time to look at the issue:

https://rapidshare.com/share/406869AF83C2855732DF33091CFF54C0

I'm not sure how long RapidShare will keep these files out there (as it is a free account). The prices really jumped and I can't / won't pay it, as putting food on the table of a fixed income family is more important.

Anyway, here's the dump (both types I spoke of).

[z16]

@IBHalliwell

Ah, wasn't this true also for the Windower 4 build at this point?

Not to my knowledge, I don't remember it ever being fixed on Windower 4.

As for //terminate, I found it messes other stuff other than the inventory, such as macro changes.

Yeah, but macros are easily saved by just changing macro sets once (Ctrl+Up for example), so I don't see this as an issue either.

[IBHalliwell]

Just FYI: Instead of doing //terminate what I did was:

1) Logout 2) Use the insert key to open the command window (or whatever is the proper name) 3) use the terminate command (not //terminate, just terminate)

FFXI / POL ends and think everything will be OK, unless something with PlayOnline is open .. then again I don't use it other than to get to FFXI.

In any case, there's a bug and two dumps in case anyone has the time to look at them. The dumps will be there till I need the space or RapidShare removes them OR someone tells me I can remove them.

[alphaONE2]

I want to clarify that we would like to fix this; we just don't have the time or resources to devote to this right now. Given the fact that there is a workaround, and that the bug does not directly impact gameplay, we've decided that our time would be better spent elsewhere. We have a very long list of bugs and feature requests, most of which have far more impact than this bug. If, for some reason, the situation changes, we will certainly reconsider our position on this.

[IBHalliwell]

IryokuChevalier wrote:

I want to clarify that we would like to fix this; we just don't have the time or resources to devote to this right now.

I totally understand! :-) You work with what resources you have and life with what you is available. It's cool and I thank both you and z16 for taking time to reply to this thread.

z16 wrote:

Yeah, but macros are easily saved by just changing macro sets once (Ctrl+Up for example), so I don't see this as an issue either.

I didn't know this at all. Thank you for letting me / us know. /bow -- /kneel BTW, everyone here uses Logitech PC/XBox (switch) game controllers. So, just to make sure I understand you're talking about say doing a LT or RT and up / down of a macro set. Right?

One last thought / concern on insuring everything is OK with using //terminate: When Square Enix is taking down a server for some reason, they want us to logout so we don't lose our character information and/or ... honestly, I don't remember the exact wording. Does this not really matter? As in we can't lose anything through staying on or by using //terminate?

Finally: Would the previous suggestion I made with the three steps (Logout, insert key, terminate not //terminate) but a better approach / work around, as it allow for "closing down" all characters before terminating POL / FFXI?

OH!! One thought just crossed my mind using //terminate. Does using it affect any of the plugins and/or add-on(s)? Can using it leave one (or more) of them in a bad state, such as open files, unwritten files, data, etc? (I honestly don't know enough to say about Windower4. I do know when I was programming this was a concern during "abend"/crash cleanup for files and memory usage (e.g. to not lose memory).

[alphaONE2]

One last thought / concern on insuring everything is OK with using //terminate: When Square Enix is taking down a server for some reason, they want us to logout so we don't lose our character information and/or ... honestly, I don't remember the exact wording. Does this not really matter? As in we can't lose anything through staying on or by using //terminate?

As far as I know SE doesn't have this warning any more. It shouldn't be a problem in any case. As far as the server is concerned using //terminate is the same as a disconnect. The server still has all of your state, and will persist anything that it needs to when it drops the connection.

OH!! One thought just crossed my mind using //terminate. Does using it affect any of the plugins and/or add-on(s)? Can using it leave one (or more) of them in a bad state, such as open files, unwritten files, data, etc? (I honestly don't know enough to say about Windower4. I do know when I was programming this was a concern during "abend"/crash cleanup for files and memory usage (e.g. to not lose memory).

The worst case scenario is if an addon is in the process of saving settings to file, or if it has but the writes haven't been flushed to disc yet. In this case your settings may be corrupt and need to be recreated. If you are worried about this possibility you can unload everything before terminating.

There should be no other dangers in using //terminate. The OS knows which pages have been committed and which handles have been opened by the process and will clean everything up when the process terminates. Memory leaks happen when a process doesn't free memory it can no longer use but keeps running anyway, once the process terminates the leaked memory is freed automatically.

[IBHalliwell]

Hello IryokuChevalier,

Thank you so very much for you reply to the two concerns I brought you. I didn't realize the warning message no longer exists, when Square Enix takes down a server. It has been awhile since I was on at the moment the sever was in the process of going down.

It sound like now you're basically able to play right up the last moment of the shutdown and as long as the treasury is empty you'll lose nothing at all. (And also saved any changed macros.)

Thank you for your help,

IBHalliwell