PnkBstrA and PnkBstrB, a heads up

akuLa, for sure man :) always glad to help people get this game working for i know how frustrating it is to not get it to work.

----- :yay: :yay: :yay: ------ BELOW IS THE EXACT MESSAGE FROM EA SUPPORT THAT SOLVED MY PROBLEM - FOLLOW IT EXACTLY!! ------ :yay: :yay: :yay: --------

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts. I’m sorry for the difficulty that you are having with the game Battlefield 2.

Delete and Reinstall the Punkbuster Folder and Software
To delete and reinstall the Punkbuster folder and software:

Click on My Computer.
Click on the C: drive, or wherever you have Battlefield 2 installed.
Click on Program Files.
Click on Electronic Arts.
Click on Battlefield 2.
Right-click on the pb folder, then click Delete.
Download and run the installation software for Punkbuster, which can be found here.

http://www.evenbalance.com/downloads/pbsvc/pbsvc.exe

Click the Uninstall button.
Close the installer.
Click on the Start button.
Click on Run.
Type regedit in the text field and press OK.
Warning: Changes to the registry can cause your computer to operate improperly, so please follow these instructions exactly as they are written.
Follow these steps to back-up the registry so that should something go wrong, you can restore your system back to a working state:
If you are using Windows 2000/XP/Vista, click on File, and select Export. Note: If you are using Windows 95/98/ME, click on Registry
Then select Export Registry.
Select All under Export Range.
Type backup into the File name field, and click Save. You've now created a backup version of your registry.
Once you've created your backup, continue as follows.
Click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
Click the plus sign next to System.
Click the plus sign next to ControlSet001.
Click the plus sign next to Services.
Look for PnkBstrA, PnkBstrB, and PnkBstrK, and if they exist, right-click on each one and select Delete.
Click the minus sign next to ControlSet001.
Repeat steps 5, 6, 7, and 8 immediately above for any other ControlSet folders you have, such as ControlSet002 or CurrentControlSet.
Close regedit.
Double-click on the My Computer icon.
Double-click on drive C:.
Double-click on windows.
Double-click on system32.
Look for PnkBstrA.exe and PnkBstrB.exe and if they exist, right-click on each one and select Delete.
Double-click on drivers.
Look for PnkBstrK.sys, and if it exists, right-click on it and select Delete.
Restart windows.
Follow the instructions here to reinstall Punkbuster.

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

Try to play Battlefield 2


THERE YOU GO GUYS. HOPE THIS HELPS SOME MORE PEOPLE!
SEE YOU ON THE BATTLEFIELD

I had a 'Service Communication Failure' issue with my PnkBstrB.exe file and after a few months of head scratching and frustration i finally found a solution:
Firstly i had to go to my McAfee Firewall settings and allow punkbustera full access,
Secondly I followed the manual un-install/re-install of punkbuster as shown above with the exception of one thing......After restarting Windows i ran
http://www.evenbalance.com/downloads/pbsvc/pbsvc.exe first then http://www.evenbalance.com/index.php?page=pbsetup.php secondly and so far I have been able to play without any problems,
I hope this can help somebody:yay:

Before I start messing with anything, is there any sure-fire way to fix the handshaking error? McAfee Security Center was recently updated on my computer, and I had to allow PB and BF2.exe to access the Internet and I get kicked for the handshaking error.

[Polka]

wow i have done everything here....And i still have to reinstall pb every ****ing time before i play to get it to work...

[DOGGiE52]

PB is the worst thing that ever happened to BF2 and any game at all. I am not surprised it screws up the game, it's practically made to cause problems.

[Irish Freedom]

handshaking

i don't really understand what you're supposed to do if you have the "handshaking failed" problem. Am I supposed to reinstall PB or deal with the virus scanner software stuff in my computer? (I have an Hp with Vista)

is anybody getting kicked repeatedly for "losing key packets"? cause i am and nothing works. i got a ticket on the pb site and they told be to run pb setup about a month ago and when i told them it didnt work they decided they would stop trying to help me, havent heard from em since. im gunna try everyting again from this thread to see if i missed a step, but i doubt it, if you guys find anything else out let me know.

[The Laughing Man]

Dunno if someone else has already posted this, I got about half way through the posts and then stopped looking but I did notice quite a few folk mention that Punbuster continues to run even if BF2 isn't running.

Here's how you can stop it.

Create a new text document
Type the following minus the quotation marks "SC.EXE STOP PnkBstrA"
Save the file as something memorable ensure it has the .BAT extension. Stoppunk.BAT is mine.
Stick the file on your desktop. Double click to stop punkbuster

To create a file that restarts punkbuster do exactly as above but use the text "SC.EXE START PnkBstrA" .

I noticed a few folk saying that PunkbusterB is another program that runs along side PunkbusterA but I've had a look on my system and I can only find PnkBstrA running in the processes list. I had a dig around in services.msc and found PnkBstrB but clicking on it's properties brings up an error saying it doesn't exist.

If however you do have both PnkBstrB and PnkBstrA running in your process list then you can create file that reads

"SC.EXE STOP PnkBstrA"
"SC.EXE STOP PnkBstrB"

That should stop both of them with a double click of the mouse.

[wolverine77]

Re: PnkBstrA and PnkBstrB, a heads up

ok i fixed mine, i did all the things found here

http://support.ea.com/cgi-bin/ea.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=14628&p_created=1176913892&p_sid=hv6_wQOi&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MywzJnBfcHJvZHM9NywxMzg4LDEwMDMmcF9jYXRzPTAmcF9wdj0zLjEwMDMmcF9jdj0mcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1ubyBwYWNrZXQgZmxvdw**&p_li=&p_topview=1

i also reinstalled BF2 and patched to 1.41, set all my ports and few other fixes

Re: PnkBstrA and PnkBstrB, a heads up

THIS IS BS! i have dun everyfix i cant find soloution

IF you really have done everything then the only thing left is to reformat and reinstall windows... If this doesn't clear things up for you then I don't know what will.

[wolverine77]

Re: PnkBstrA and PnkBstrB, a heads up

THIS IS BS! i have dun everyfix i cant find soloution

[alextaylor29]

Re: PnkBstrA and PnkBstrB, a heads up

I haven't played BF2 since the PB issue came up unfortunately and basically even Balance is telling me to re-intall BF2 completely, which sucks as I will have to reconfigure everything.

I get a EULA error when installing PB.exe which is fairly unique. Quake Wars Enemy Territory just arrived so I may just start playing that instead of BF2. However it that game sucks I might just bite the bullet and re-install BF2.

It's my fav game and I'm just sad that I've had to do all this crap for what is clearly a software issue and nothing we're doing as gamers.

All the great games I've played over the years, Tribes 2 particularly eventually had some sofware/bug/patch that killed it and forced me to move on. Sounds like it might be time to do this with BF2.

If any of you guys have an final fixes I'd be happy to try them.

Thanks as always.

Re: PnkBstrA and PnkBstrB, a heads up

Hackers are like cockroaches.. They always find a way.

Re: PnkBstrA and PnkBstrB, a heads up

I'm having the intermittent handshaking error as well. The night before last I was able to play for 2 hours without a single problem, incident, or glitch.
Last night, however, I was repeatedly booted (from the same server I was playing on the night before) for handshaking error. I check for updates using the PBsetup before every session as well.

???????

Oh....and another thing, the other night when I was actually able to play the game guess what I saw in-game?
The commander hack. Yup, hundreds of jeeps falling from the sky.
WTF punkbuster?!?!?!?!
This seems to me to be one of the most obvious hacks I've seen! What the hell is your "new and improved" system doing anyways if it's not actually stopping the hackers??? Is your new system actually just stealing all my personal information of my computer and routing it to your stronghold in the Grand Cayman Islands?

The game was fine before you ruined it with your "fix" punkbuster!

I hope Punkbuster dies of gonorrhea and burns in hell (with Dan Marino).

Re: PnkBstrA and PnkBstrB, a heads up

Mine wasn't locking up completely or getting me kicked, just stuttering/looping sound from ingame or TS, with very very slow response (if at al) to alt-tab/ctr-alt-del. Everything would come good after a few minutes, if I had the patience to wait. I was pretty sure it was PB because changing pb_sleep setting changed the delay/frequncy before the problem started and the PunkbusterB service was always accessing cpu in task manager when I did manage to alt-tab.

I went throught the steps to remove and reinstall PB from the first post.
This worked for a day but next day the problem was back. At lease I can update pb before I load the game now.

In the end, I read a post at Overclockers Australia about shutting down RivaTuner before I loaded BF2 and this seems to have done the trick.

[alextaylor29]

Re: PnkBstrA and PnkBstrB, a heads up

Yeah I've had no luck playing BF2 for weeks now due to BF2 and have a ticket into even balance as well.

We'll see.