Punkbuster is Busted

[General Obscurity]

OMG i am having a nightmare...


Yesterday i went and bought BF2, installed and joined a server with a m8 of mine..

Jumped in a heli and flew about/crashed/died/respawned etc all the usual excitement for a noob to the game.. after 10 mins of fun i got booted from the server with the msg:

Punkbuster Error

You have been permanently banned from the game server ... GLOBAL Punkbuster Hardware Ban 2c510926..


Nice, only played for 10 mins and the game kicks me for cheating??

I have NO cheats what so ever on my system, I dont cheat and never will cheat..

So i go to another server and 2 mins in kicked again same msg..

tried a reinstall, yessss played the game for 1 hour then booooot same msg..

i have updated so many drivers/manually updated punkbuster, emailed EA, opened a ticket with evenbalance AND NOTHING!! no replys sod all..

Frankly i am a bit niffed...

Can anyone help me please??

[NoSoup4You]

Simple fix. I doubt you have a global ban, but if you do, you can appeal it at www.punkbusted.com

Now for the fix:
Goto: www.fairbalance.com

Download pbweb.exe (not .zip!). Once you have it, place it into your C:/Program Files/EA Games/Battlefield 2/pb/ folder. Now double click and run pbweb.exe (it may take a while to run). This is a manual update for Punk Buster, as EA decided not to stream the updates in-game (as they did with BFV and BF1942).

[cha0tic]

Hmm.. I guess the only thing you really can do is just keep contacting EA/Dice and EvenBalance. Worst case scenario, you might have to reformat (in case you have spyware that PB doesn't like for some reason) or you might have to contact EA to get a new BF2 disc or even worse, you might have to buy a new one.

[General Obscurity]

thnx for replies


I have manually updated using PBweb - and no change


I have also reformatted the machine and reinstalled my system inc all microsoft updates/new drivers etc and still no joy...


There has got to be something i can do about this, surely they cannot take your hard earned pennies and ignore you..

2 days i have been w8ing for ticket to be updated and no reply for evenbalance..


bah - i am going for a smoke to calm down

[NoSoup4You]

It may take a while. My guess is they will tell you to re-install and update all of your drivers (especially you LAN/Motherboard drivers).

[DrunkenPirate]

Now that's just harsh.

I would just keep at it with the emails and complaints.
I'm sure there is a logical explanation somwehere.

[General Obscurity]

you might have to contact EA to get a new BF2 disc or even worse, you might have to buy a new one.

Lol they can whistle if they think i am gonna waste more cash on buying a new copy, they can sodding well replace this one if they cannot sort it

[NoSoup4You]

Now that's just harsh.

I would just keep at it with the emails and complaints.
I'm sure there is a logical explanation somwehere.

Did you delete some posts? I'm confused.

[DrunkenPirate]

Did you delete some posts? I'm confused.

Not in this thread no. And no members have deleted any of their posts either.
Is there something missing that shouldn't be?

[General Obscurity]

mmmm


been doing a bit of trolling around forums and found that you can find out you version/GUID use punkbuster commands via the console ingame..

It says that you do not have to be online to do this, now i have tried these commands like PB_VER and PB_MYGUID and i get nothing in the console?

is this right? does this mean PB is not working at all..

Can somebody test this for me as i cannot stay on a PB server long enough to test it myself?

[Gulf_War_Syndrome]

I could be completely wrong here, I'm not sure how it works, but I would assume the "Hardware Ban" would use something like your network cards MAC address or similar.
If you are using onboard network, you may be able to change the MAC address in your BIOS. If this still doesn't work, try disabling the onboard LAN and use a plug in PCI card.
If you are using a PCI network card, try using your onboard LAN or another PCI card.

... its a long shot, but certainly worth a try!

[NoSoup4You]

Wrong thread Drunken, no worries mate!

[agentbad]

sounds like you are a cheater and most likely an idiot. do more research on your own to figure out that you are an idiot.

[DeathFromAbove]

It's just a nightmare... WAKE UP!

[perry]

If that's the message, then you were caught violating PB's EULA in BF2 or another game -- that's why they handout global hardware bans. Using some cheat that attempts to bypass or modify Punkbuster is against their EULA so they ban you from every game they have their hands on. I suppose it could be some sort of weird error, but good luck on getting PB to unban you.

http://www.punksbusted.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=470