Unable To Locate DirectX Evice Error

I've posted on the official forums to no avail, I figured there would be more Alienware and Nvidia card gurus here any ways.

Symptom: Every 45min-1hr, FFXIV crashes with the following error, "Unable to locate DirectX device. Please make sure a compatible..."

Problem and Solution Attempts: Alienwares have both an integrated intel GPU (a decent one actually) and a dedicated after market GPU. The system has an optimization function that switches between the two depending on the amount of strain any given program puts on the system. If it seems too intense for the integrated card, the system swaps to the other. If the after market gets hot, the system temporarily moves back to the integrated card. From the official, I was told this swap can cause FFXIV to crash as it wasn't programmed well enough to make the transition as other games are.

I have tried forcing FFXIV to run solely on my Nvidia GeForce 555M, and I have tried forcing it to run solely on the integrated card. Both of these still produce a crash.

I have tried several different driver updates on both cards, with no luck.

I have played with the graphics settings for XIV, causing the crash to happen at all different times, including the moment the game goes from character select to game. The best I get is about an hour of gamepley before crash. This doesn't equate to lowered settings either, I can get an hour on max settings, as long as I play full screen and don't screw with game resolutions that aren't compatible with my M14X screen resolutions.

I have "run as" admin, other user, "run with" each graphics card.

I have ran multiple updates and roll backs of DirectX.

Other Pertinent Information: This is a brand new machine (3 weeks old), and therefore, I haven't really had a chance to play much else on it. I have played "The Witcher", "Dungeon Siege III" and "ES: Skyrim" on it a bit. I have not had crashes, but I have noticed Skyrim minimizing itself during gameplay a couple of times. I haven't paid attention as to whether this is at about that 45min earmark or not. It does not crash, however, and I am able to alt+tab to get it to come back.


Anyone have other suggestions? Thanks for any input.

i had this problem once, i was messing with the settings and resolutions to see what the best my gfx card could handle. i think it was when i put 2x AA on. but at any case, my gfx card had a hard time running it. fps would dip extremly low and the game would get really choppy, so instead of logging out and lowering the settings i decided to OC my video card using Catalyst.

OCing the card made everything work great. gameplay/video smoothed right out everything worked fine for about 20~30mins. then i crashed and got the same exact error you did.

i lowered the settings only a tiny bit and then lowered the resolution, took gfx card off OC, and i'm getting cool temps and 60+fps now.

my guess is its a heat issue, try lowering/adjusting your settings and retrying the game. resolution is huge btw, i don't think laptop graphics cards can handle full 1080p res for ff14 yet.

try launching it in 720p windowed mode to see if that helps any.

I'm not overclocked, and I see no difference in crashing by lowering gfx settings.

I did windowed right off the bat, but it blocks part of the screen as once I maximize it doesn't fit properly.

This card has no lag or choppiness even in very crowded areas. I haven't checked temp yet, but it doesn't seem hot, fan doesn't even kick on that often.

Are you're using Lucid Virtue or Lucid Virtue MVP? That may be the problem. I would disable it.

I would also disable the igpu in the bios

Sorry I see you're on a laptop, still try disabling the igpu.

k but did you lower the resolution yet?

i would check into the gpu temp, if i had a guess that would be the problem, laptop cards are pretty ***, theres not much in terms of good ventilation in there lol.

apparently you didn't comprehend what i said in my last post, so i'll try to clarify; ignore the part where i said about the choppy-ness, when i turned off OC, and gpu temp shot back down i stopped getting the exact same error you are getting. but hey man, its just advice etc etc.

edit- okay so i found your problem, the card your running is pretty ***lol. i just looked up the benchmark for your gpu in your laptop.

for comparison i'll show you what i'm currently using in my desktop (its a 2yr old card, and i still have trouble running ff14 on medium-high settings on anything higher than 720p)

Me - Radeon HD 5770 1,693 Benchmark

You - GeForce GT 555M 1,011 Benchmark

i'm pretty sure if i'm having trouble running the game then your gpu is probably crying if your on anything higher than what i've got set lol. turn resolution down to the lowest (720p) and try medium settings only (shadows on lowest), no AA, no ambient occlusion, no depth of field.

with those settings you should be able to run it fine, now just to clarify; yes it is possible for your gpu to handle better settings than what i listed, but its not made to run at a full load for that long, the temp is causing your gpu to auto fail safe pretty much and causing the game to crash lol. which is why you crash every so often (i'd bet 100$ its because of the heat generated from under full load for the length of time)

if you still don't believe me for some reason; theres hope.

when FF14 2.0 launches they are bringing with it a revamped graphics engine, they are scaling some things back and reworking the code;

tldr; the game will look the same, but it will be easier to run on not so high performance pc's and gfx cards. so you should be able to run the game with your current laptop on higher settings once 2.0 is released.

Not an option on these machines.

I understood, I was just saying I'm not OC at all. Of course this card is ***, I just paid 1600 on a brand new alienware and go figure I get ***. (Was the best card available). Last PC I bought was a month after Dell dropped support on XP and my only option was a Vista machine (again my luck, ***product). Old one ran XI great (its original purpose) but as soon as I stopped playing XI and tried to move on to say Batman Arkham Asylum, I didn't meet minimum reqs.

I'm going to check temp tonight, but this thing was actually properly designed for cooling. It has two massive intakes on the bottom of the machine and two good fans with a solid 3x1 in. exhaust port on each side of the back. I can tell when it actually gets hot from sitting on the bed or something. When playing is isn't even blowing out warm air. I also threw a lapcool 3 under it so I'm running fanned air into the intake.

I'll knock it down to 720p and see what happens, but I let the thing do auto-detect on Skyrim and it went to ultra-high and maxed everything (16x AA and the works). Skyrim never lags or mis-draws ever. I know it isn't the #1 game in the world to stress test a machine, but it is massive and has very HQ graphics. It ate my other machine alive on anything but low.

Just so pissed that I finally got the Alienware that I've always wanted (was a dream as a child), and then spent good money to make it something I could keep for a while; only to have the first real game I try to use it with crap out on it.

So, tried to find a better mobile card, where the hell do I buy these things outright and not in a machine. Anyone have any ideas? All I can find are desktop cards.

umm..you generally can't really replace laptop cards lol. so D:


Dell bought out Alienware a while back, its not the same company anymore lol. you are basically using a glorified dell laptop :x


you should have looked into other laptop companies, like MSI or ASUS, could have got a 2nd gen i7 2.2ghz w/ a better gfx card, for 200~400$ less lol.


skyrim is nowhere near as graphics heavy as ff14 for some reason, it looks nice, but 14 just uses alot of resources X_X, FF14 max, uses more resources than BF3 on Ultra lol.

Ok, i had this problem too. I have both an M15x & a M11x and they are the same. There isnt a "Cure" but there is a work around:

The problem is the dual graphics cards. When it switches XIV looses focus on the screen.

1st thing, when you run it in wondowed mode you must have the mains power connected or it will directx error before even getting into the main game.

Non windowed is slightly more stable as long as the laptop isnt stretched too much.

Go to "Nvidia Control Pannel" & "Manage 3D Settings".

Under "Global Settings" leave the Preferred Graphics Processor on "Auto-select" (if you set this to high performance it wont work).

Then,

Under "Program Settings" add "ffxivboot.exe" and set that to "High-Performance".

See if you have any joy with that. If theres still issues il post all the settings.

If you still have issues play about with the rest of the settings in there, i can post mine if you have no luck.

It isn't integrated..

I wanted an Alienware for the name, I know Dell owns it. I have had good luck with Dell.

I got a better i7 than that on the Alienware... A family member has an ASUS and while they are better now, they used to be laughable. He also has better specs, but less performance than mine on anything non FFXIV.

I know it isn't as graphics heavy, I was just saying that it takes a decent machine to run on Ultra and does so fine on my machine.

Again, I looked at nothing aside from an Alienware because of a childhood dream when a friend of mine got a desktop back in Jr. High.
It's akin to those people who grow up always wanting a 1968 Camaro. They know they can get more performance out of a 2012 Corvette, but they want the Camaro because an uncle had a sweet one when they were children.

I'm just upset at the fact that it's having issues when I made it a point to make educated decisions on how to upgrade it before ordering.

Also, Alienware is left to its own devices, they are still assembled at the Florida plant.

This could be it. I changed the global to High Performance before changing the program to use the Nvidia card.

Nope...

FFXIV's graphics engine, Crystal Tools, lacks proper optimization for an MMO's graphical requirements, so even current high end cards 2 years later still have a difficult time running the game on the highest settings. It worked for FFXIII, because it was designed with that game in mind, but it doesn't seem like a very versatile engine. Thankfully their new custom engine for it will optimize more specifically of what they need out of an MMO format (ie: Rendering more than 40 characters on screen at one time). It might not be the case than low end cards run it any better. Naoki Yoshida has stated that he would like the engine to be more broad in rendering, meaning people who have lower end cards would still be able to play the game respectably on low settings, while people who have performance-based gaming PCs will be able to take advantage of their high end prowess with the new engine.

I'm going to try some counter-intuitive measures tonight and max all my settings. If it is in fact due to heat, I should crash much more quickly than I have been.

If not, I have some setting causing XIV to lose its link with my gfx cards.

Hello.

I was having the same problem than you, I'm using a DisplayPort-to-three-DVIs adapter which uses USB-power, After weeks of having this problem, I discovered that the error was caused because for a second the system couldn't recognize the display monitor, because of this the Direct X sends a problem cause it doesn't find where to draw the output and the game crashes (but now windows)... all of this because a USB malfunction, it may be caused because you have a lot of peripherals connected (all of them using USB-power). I switched the power of the displayport-converter to a USB 3.0 connector and after a while my keyboard failed (that is how i noticed the USB malfunction).

This may help you to discover the problem with your computer, cause i'm sure your problem is not with the GPU but with the display monitor, or the connectors of the monitor, or the power of the peripherals. Try connect them to another port (HDMI or VGA), chance cables, etc.

Good luck.

Thanks for the input, but I crash when absolutely no peripherals are connected. My crash doesn't change if I connect my LapCool and a TV monitor. I agree that DirectX is telling the system that it doesn't know where to draw the game, but it seems to be thanks to my system having 2 different GPUs. The system swaps from one to the other (even when I override it and tell it not to), and when it does FFXIV crashes. My other games seem to manage this swap ok. SE really needs to get with Nvidia on a fix for Optimus machines.