BF2 freezes when joining PB enabled servers

[JuhlJr]

Hello :)

My BF2 installation works quite fine both in multiplayer and singleplayer, with no serious latency and with an acceptable fps.

But whenever I join a BF2 server which uses Punkbuster, my system freezes after a little while, 20 sec ~ 1 min. The only thing that seems to work is to hit the reset button on the PC, or turn it off-on.

I've updated Punkbuster with the PB_setup tool, I'm using the latest drivers for my video and sound card, and BF2 is using the latest patch.

All my system drivers is up-to-date. I've checked my RAM using MemTest86+, which returned null errors. I've checked my harddisk using Maxtor's own diagnostic tool, that Burn-In test also returned zero errors.

My firewall is not in the way since BF2 has been granted all-access rights.

So I'm a bit lost here, any ideas?

-----------------------------------

CPU Type:
AMD Barton 2500+

CPU Speed:
1.84 GHz

RAM Memory:
2 x PC-3400 DDR-SD RAM 256 MB (dual-channel)

Operating System:
Windows XP Professional

Video Card Type:
ATi Radeon 9800 PRO

Video Card Driver Version:
Omega 3.8.252 based on Catalyst 6.5 Official drivers

Internet Connection:
shared 100 Mbit

Game version:
1.1.2878-710.0

[|RS|Osprey]

Re: BF2 freezes when joining PB enabled servers

I am having a very similar problem. However whenever I play single player the game absolutely runs flawlessly.

When I enter multiplayer as soon as the loading is done and I enter the battle everything freezes on my pc. I end up having to reboot the entire box. I also have all my drivers updates and patches accordingly.

It very much looks like a pb issue (something similar to what I have seen in Enemy Territory).

Any one have any clue to what could be the problem?

[N2K]

Re: BF2 freezes when joining PB enabled servers

Have you guys tried updating you PB?

http://www.punkbuster.com/index.php?page=pbsetup.php

[JuhlJr]

Solution!

Yes, I've tried that update tool. It did find and install an update, but the problem remained.

The problem seemed to be with my Windows XP SATA RAID driver, Silicon Image Sil 3x12A SATA RAID. I updated the driver from Silicon Image's homepage and now everthing works fine.

Apparently there is some trouble with SATA Controller drivers and Punkbuster, or maybe just the SATA drivers themselves. When I asked the Punkbuster supporters I got this answer:

nForce4-Board:
As a nForce4 user you should make sure you have up-to-date nForce drivers installed (the original drivers for nForce4 are known to cause problems). Do not forget to first uninstall the old drivers!

Get the drivers from here:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4_winxp32_amd_6.66.html

SiS965L, SiS180, SiS965, SiS964 Chipset + SATA:
If you have this chipset, please install the following driver: http://driver2.sis.com/raid/raid304a.zip

Silicon Image Sil 3x12A SATA RAID:
Installing this driver will fix the issue. Note that it is just for RAID controller.

ULi 1695 Chipset:
Installing this driver will fix the issue:
ftp://www.uli.com.tw/driver/Integrated213.zip

SATA controller:
Check what SATA controller was built into your system. Check on the controller manufacturers website for updated drivers (especially WHQL drivers).
If none was found check the chipset manufacturers website for such a driver, after that check the mainboards manufacturers website.
If no success at all these places do the following:
Delete the driver in the device manager. Let windows find the driver and let it search for a capable driver at "windows update". It should find a WHQL certified driver now. That should work.

I hope this will help some of you out there, as I couldn't find any solution myself when I searched through the net. I tried to update Battlefield 2, Punkbuster, my sound, chipset, graphics, and a bunch of other drivers. I tried to reinstall the game, as this has been said to resolve the problem. I ran several "Burn-In tests" in a attempt to find faulty hardware. But no luck.

Actually both the Punkbuster team and EA Games responded very quickly to my inquiries with solution suggestions. So if you can't find help any other places try them.

Punkbuster Tech Support

So I'll guess I will see you in game... "catch you on the flipside"

- JuhlJr