Vista PB Problems

Post by **CountBelasarius** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:19 pm

In an effort to determine what is causing the PB problems a few people have been suffering from lately could anyone with Vista post about any Punkbuster problems they've had lately.

Two PC's each running 32 bit Vista with no firewalls, anti virus or windows defender on.

On one PC I kept getting kicked for handshaking failed. I have to maually activate the PnkBstrB from my pb BF2 folder to get it working.

On the other PC I had another set of problems. All I have to do on that one is to go to Task Manager, manually stop PnkBstrA and then restart it.

*Note- My problems are resolved and I can help if you catch me on TS.

If you lack either of the PB exe's...

images/madcow/pnkbstra.exe

images/madcow/pnkbstrb.exe

Post by **madcow** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:37 pm

This could help answer some of your questions too...

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

Post by **Shrapnel** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:05 pm

I had a problem where I would be kicked from a BF2 server immediately after loading the map with the message "RESTRICTION: Service Communication Error: PnkBstrA.exe."

I contacted PB about the issue since I couldn't find any working solution online. Here is there reply:

PB Cust Serv wrote:Note #2: If you are being kicked for a "Communication Failure" 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 (even if you turn them off while playing). Until you locate and remove the restrictions on PnkBstrA and B, you will continue to be kicked for this.

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.

Please make sure that both PnkBstrA.exe and PnkBstrB.exe services are set to start automatically every time your computer starts. Go to: Start menu, Settings, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services and change PnkBstrA and PnkBstrB to start automatically.

Downloading and reinstalling the PB service from that link fixed my problem. I did not have to configure my anti-virus or firewall at all.

BTW I'm running the 64-bit version of Vista.

Post by **Goggles** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 3:48 pm

Shrapnel wrote: BTW I'm running the 64-bit version of Vista.

How does it run? I have the DVD to install it, but I haven't gone there yet due to my paranoid ears hearing all kinds of rumors about it having hardware conflicts and driver signing issues, lack of 16-bit backwards compatibility, etc. But I'm sooooo driven by my geekiness to install it

TheHumanShield · Post by **TheHumanShield** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 4:33 pm

No problems to report here with 64 bit vista. You cannot install unsigned drivers so make sure you can find official 64 bit drivers for all your hardware before you switch.

Post by **Shrapnel** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 6:30 pm

I've had no problems with it Goggles. All of my hardware installed real easy though I do have all new stuff so I can't speak to backwards compatibility. I also never installed the 32-bit version so I can't say how much performance boost there is.

I feel like it's faster though...

The PB issue is the only one I've had with Vista so far. Other than the annoying thing where it asks you three times if you really want to do something everytime you make a folder or move a file or something.