Launcher uses stupid amounts of CPU

[Markavu]

So my computer is fairly old, but not too old to play FFXI under normal circumstances with absolutely no problems.
I've noticed exactly 10 minutes after logging in, and in rarer instances sooner, the FFXI-boot.exe or mXI.exe process will just start eating all of my processing power and turn the game into a slideshow.
My friends who I've been playing with have more modern computers don't notice any real drop in performance so it may be an error that was over looked or just deemed unimportant since it had little impact on most people.
The game runs perfectly fine until that 10 minute mark so there has to be something happening to cause all of this.

[Demonium]

What are your specs?

[Markavu]

OS: Windows XP(32-bit)
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3000+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series

I played on the official FFXI servers for a while and for the first 10 minutes this runs as I would expect after playing there.
But at that 10 minute mark something happens and the process just goes bonkers.

[whasf]

I think you're the 2nd person i've heard of who's run into this problem, i have no idea what's causing it though...

[Markavu]

I have no idea about the inner workings of the game, but could it possibly be trying to request something from the PlayOnline client but isn't able to get it so it keeps sending out requests that go unanswered?
Since it usually happens at a really exact time I'd assume it would be comparatively easy to identify.

[bluekirby0]

Most likely it is a memory leak that is caused by the boot loader and only gets triggered under very specific conditions. I am wondering if available CPU instructions may have an effect, since the buggy code may be bypassed on systems with a newer instruction set available.

[Markavu]

This is getting too frustrating to actually play.
In towns it's the worst, just loading the map takes about 5 seconds.
Navigating menus becomes a huge pain due to how slow the game ends up.
I really hope you guys can fix this, but judging by your responses I shouldn't hold my breath.

[Demonium]

Have you tried to update your video card drivers to the latest version?

I think your CPU is single core, isn't it? And maybe 512k of cache. Don't expect too much of a CPU that is almost 10 years old for this kind of game. I suggest either to overclock (little gain) or to upgrade to new CPU+motherboard. You can have pretty nice combos for dual core with a minimum price.

Maybe your BIOS can be updated as well. It couldn't hurt.

Maybe you can also tweak your system, and deactivate useless services like MSN, printing devices at startup, and have a Windows session customized for FFXI. You'd be surprised how much power you can gain in such customization. At startup, you can choose what session you want to boot from (not a dual boot, but kind of).

Also, some people says that emulate Windows from a Linux machine runs faster than running Windows on a Windows machine. Never experience this, but worth the try if the previous advices didn't work. hehe.

Or you can buy a totally new computer. There are nice machines you can buy now, and they are very cheap. After all, you save 15$ bucks per month for not paying to SE for player FFXI. hehe.

[Markavu]

I don't think you understand the situation here.
It's not a matter of my CPU not being able to handle the game. It takes just over 30% of my cpu at the worst times.

This is definitely a memory leak of some sort.
I've tested it various times. Not a second over 10 minutes from the time the launcher shows "Successfully logged in as <username>" the game proceeds to eat every last remaining bit of processing power my machine has.
Even if I sit at the Accept/Decline screen it does it without fail.
Even when the actual game window closes and the launcher remains it continues to mercilessly eat my cpu.

Sure, I could definitely use an upgrade sure but my financial situation doesn't allow for that. It's horribly disappointing that I'd happen to run into such a crippling and rare bug that only seems to be affecting me and a couple other people, but it can't be helped.

[Demonium]

Sorry for my misunderstanding, I thought that processing power meant a problem of your CPU. In that case, you can try to test your ram. Maybe something is wrong with your ram, and they should be replaced. 2 GB is more than enough to play the game. I used to play on my P4 2.4ghz with only 796 GB of ram and it worked fine.
But I think RAM problem could result in a crash of your system (blue screen, freezing, etc.).
I would also suggest formatting your hard drive; maybe it was done a long time ago and your system is full of garbage. I know it could be painfull to reinstall everything + FFXI, but it could help.
I would also suggest maybe to run the game not in max settings. Try a resolution like 800x600, and adjust the in-game settings.
If any of my suggestions doesn't work, maybe there's some kind of spiritual force that doesn't want you to play the game.