Vista: PnkBstrK.sys help!

[frazle]

Right, I had this problem on the 6th July and thought I'd fixed it, until last night when it re-appeared. Basically at any random time between 50% map load & 2mins or so into the map, my game hangs and has to be forced quit with CTRL+ALT+DEL (which in vista takes me to page where i can select task manager).

I thought I'd fixed it by deleting icontent.cache and renaming radial.cdb, as it worked straight after, but now its started happening again so I have no idea what the prob is. I've opened a support ticket with even balance, but the response I got last time was:

Note #5: If you are being kicked for "Losing Key Packets" it is likely that something on your computer is preventing the PnkBstr services from communicating with each other. A common cause for this is a security or anti-virus program. McAfee and other popular security/firewall programs need to be told to allow the PnkBstrA and PnkBstrB services to run without restriction. Until you locate and remove the restrictions on PnkBstrA and B, you will continue to be kicked for losing key packets.

If you've never manually installed the PunkBuster services, you might want to try that as well. Download the service installer from http://www.evenbalance.com/downloads/pbsvc/pbsvc.exe and run it. You might also want to reinstall the services using this tool.

I already disable my AV before launching 2142 (its NOD32 anyway) and have no software based firewall, only my router (and given that the game works fine and then doesnt, surely it rules out firewall issues, as no settings have been changed). Besides, the losing key packets I pasted to them in the log was not linked to my problem (different timings).

I also already told them before their reply that I had used the pbsvc.exe tool, so i dont have much hope about their help on this prob.

In vista event viewer, i get the following "error":

Code integrity determined that the image hash of a file is not valid. The file could be corrupt due to unauthorized modification or the invalid hash could indicate a potential disk device error.

File Name: \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\drivers\P nkBstrK.sys

All I have to say is

Anyone got any light they can shed, which could possibly help fix this (i'm open to any ideas, besides format/xp...yet).

[iQue]

Are you sure you are playing the game with administrator rights? That could be the problem with the "losing key packets" issue.

I had the freeze issue before, and I solved it by repatching the game. A reinstall could fix it as well.

Good luck.

[frazle]

Are you sure you are playing the game with administrator rights? That could be the problem with the "losing key packets" issue.

I had the freeze issue before, and I solved it by repatching the game. A reinstall could fix it as well.

Good luck.

That's my point, i'm not losing key packets when i'm getting this problem (timings are different in the log files).

I guess i'll have to try repatching and then reinstall if that fails to work.

[angrysniper]

Right, I had this problem on the 6th July and thought I'd fixed it, until last night when it re-appeared. Basically at any random time between 50% map load & 2mins or so into the map, my game hangs and has to be forced quit with CTRL+ALT+DEL (which in vista takes me to page where i can select task manager).

I thought I'd fixed it by deleting icontent.cache and renaming radial.cdb, as it worked straight after, but now its started happening again so I have no idea what the prob is. I've opened a support ticket with even balance, but the response I got last time was:



I already disable my AV before launching 2142 (its NOD32 anyway) and have no software based firewall, only my router (and given that the game works fine and then doesnt, surely it rules out firewall issues, as no settings have been changed). Besides, the losing key packets I pasted to them in the log was not linked to my problem (different timings).

I also already told them before their reply that I had used the pbsvc.exe tool, so i dont have much hope about their help on this prob.

In vista event viewer, i get the following "error":




All I have to say is

Anyone got any light they can shed, which could possibly help fix this (i'm open to any ideas, besides format/xp...yet).

Did you disable Vista's firewall too?

[frazle]

Of course, I disable all of MS's security as I trust as much as I trust a sieve to retain water.

The uninstall/reinstall option seemed to work, didnt think it would, so cheers for suggesting that.