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Author Topic: Punkbuster issues  (Read 187802 times)

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Offline teddy_grizzly_bear

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Re: Punkbuster issues
« Reply #15 on: Wednesday, November 04, 2020, 06:47:42 AM »
Just installed on my laptop and played for 10 minutes with no issues (although I was on my own).

Here's what I did:
  • Downloaded 25Assist v8.22
  • Created a 25Assist folder where the exe was to force installation there
  • Ran 25Assist as admin
  • Waited for it to download and install everything
  • Joined an empty server and ran around for 10 minutes (2x 5 minute rounds)

OS:
Windows 10 Home
version 20H2 build 19042.610

No prior installations on this machine.

Is everyone making sure to run it as admin?
« Last Edit: Wednesday, November 04, 2020, 09:51:12 AM by teddy_grizzly_bear »
<image removed due to imgur stuff - probably for the best>

"Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true." Bertrand Russell

Offline [SWISS]Merlin

Re: Punkbuster issues
« Reply #16 on: Wednesday, November 04, 2020, 09:46:28 AM »
Hi Teddy
Yes, i did it for sure with admin rights. It is very strange, i know a player who can play without any pb kicks and he is also running Windows 10 version 2004. I really don't know what the reason could be, looks like it is not a windows 10, 2004 problem then. I made a complete new installation with windows 10, version 2004. did you it too? Or did you update windows 10, then maybe something from an old installation was not overwritten. Otherwies i have no clue about this. All options from evenbalance.com (punkbuster) i did try without any solution.
And it also can not be a problem with an existing aapg installation, which runs another version of punkbuster (because i know a player running both, aa2 and aapg without any problems). when no one is finding a solution, then i try to run a restore from an old backup of my computer to see what happends then. good luck so far.

Offline [SWISS]Merlin

Re: Punkbuster issues
« Reply #17 on: Wednesday, November 04, 2020, 13:44:09 PM »
Teddy, can you start assist on that laptop again please?
I did the same as you on a laptop. And like yours i could play 15 minutes (3 rounds) without any kicks. Then i rebooted the laptop and - i did get kicked by

service communication error: PnkBstrB.exe: heartbeat stopped

Now i did see that my windows is running the punkbuster services A and B, but with complete other versions then it shows at aa25assist.

Windows: A=1036, B=2202
aa25assist: A=a1371, B=c2243

this is very strange. I will do some more tests... but let me know if you get kicked now also.

Offline LuDi_Bipe

Re: Punkbuster issues
« Reply #18 on: Wednesday, November 04, 2020, 14:25:13 PM »
After uninstall and reinstall PB service (AS ADMIN) via 25assist (pbsvc v0.993), I get this two services and versions (service description):
PnkBstrA: [v1036]
PnkBstrB:  [v2.202 WOLF]

after running AAO, PnkBstrB is replaced with [v2.243 AAO]  and it crashes after few minutes

I have downloaded latest pbsvc setup from evenbalance (v0.994) and here are service versions post install:
PnkBstrA: [v1041]
PnkBstrB: [v2.333 BF4]

After running game, PnkBstrB service version is again replaced with [v2.243 AAO]

So, PnkBstrB service version depends on (is pushed by) the game you are playing, initially spawned services are during PB test phase, hence "wolf"  (wolfenstein) and "bf4" in service description.

Why PnkBstrB service crashes after few seconds I don't know.

PnkBstrA service version didn't change when launching game...

Could anyone with healthy PB share his PBA version?

Offline [SWISS]Merlin

Re: Punkbuster issues
« Reply #19 on: Wednesday, November 04, 2020, 16:14:08 PM »
yes, i did see that too. for sure, the problem is a mismatch of the versions from punkbuster. soon i will get answer from a player with running it without problems. then we see what to do.

Offline [SWISS]Merlin

Re: Punkbuster issues
« Reply #20 on: Wednesday, November 04, 2020, 17:40:34 PM »
ok, now for me it is almost done.
you should have running punkbuster versions like:

PnkBstrA  PunkBuster Service Component [v1041] http://www.evenbalance.com
PnkBstrB PunkBuster Service Component [v2.243 AAO] http://www.evenbalance.com

all other running version would end in a kick i guess.

would be nice to have a validation of this. you can see this by entering the task-manager, select "service" tab at the very right side, then search for punkbuster entries. if you have other versions running without a kick, please post it in here. thanks a lot.

to see the punkbuster B version, you have to start in advance the aa2 programm.

Offline LuDi_Bipe

Re: Punkbuster issues
« Reply #21 on: Thursday, November 05, 2020, 03:18:10 AM »
Last time I've tried (yesterday) with that same configuration i was kicked :/

Offline [SWISS]Merlin

Re: Punkbuster issues
« Reply #22 on: Thursday, November 05, 2020, 10:00:32 AM »
really, with exactly this 2 services running?

PnkBstrA  PunkBuster Service Component [v1041] http://www.evenbalance.com
PnkBstrB PunkBuster Service Component [v2.243 AAO] http://www.evenbalance.com

did you check it while the game was running? this would be very anoying if it was this configuration with a kick.

Offline [SWISS]Merlin

Re: Punkbuster issues
« Reply #23 on: Thursday, November 05, 2020, 10:59:29 AM »
i was able to run exactly this configuration, but i get kicked. so back to field 1, it looks not like a version mismatch at all. and it is not a firewall issue. sorry so far. i did now open a trouble ticket at evenbalance.com
« Last Edit: Thursday, November 05, 2020, 11:10:57 AM by [SWISS]Merlin »

Offline teddy_grizzly_bear

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Re: Punkbuster issues
« Reply #24 on: Thursday, November 05, 2020, 11:33:01 AM »
Teddy, can you start assist on that laptop again please?
I did the same as you on a laptop. And like yours i could play 15 minutes (3 rounds) without any kicks. Then i rebooted the laptop and - i did get kicked by

service communication error: PnkBstrB.exe: heartbeat stopped

Now i did see that my windows is running the punkbuster services A and B, but with complete other versions then it shows at aa25assist.

Windows: A=1036, B=2202
aa25assist: A=a1371, B=c2243

this is very strange. I will do some more tests... but let me know if you get kicked now also.
I ran it again and found no problems. Although I was alone on the server.

PnkBstrA - v1033
PnkBstrB - v2.243 AAO

Is anyone who's having issues running another game that uses PB? Perhaps something is getting messed up?
<image removed due to imgur stuff - probably for the best>

"Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true." Bertrand Russell

Offline [SWISS]Merlin

Re: Punkbuster issues
« Reply #25 on: Thursday, November 05, 2020, 11:39:50 AM »
thank you Teddy.
Yes i do play aapg, but i know at least one player doing the same without any problems. This is so strange.

Offline ICON-BoMBer

Re: Punkbuster issues
« Reply #26 on: Thursday, November 05, 2020, 11:47:42 AM »
on a typical night  I have like 15 players online  during 4-5 hours.
the amount of PB-kicks is sad. so manny people try to join and have this problem.
they join and give up.
I've had PB -issues myself but i just had to reboot my pc after doing the pb-fix.
for the rest I've had no problems playing this game in the last year and we're free of the annoying servercrashes to.

Offline [SWISS]Merlin

Re: Punkbuster issues
« Reply #27 on: Thursday, November 05, 2020, 12:06:43 PM »
i guess i did find the solution now - with credits to aapg player Wraiths_Defiler and SF][-General_alkos!

it seems really like a problem of windows 10. there is a windows directory called system32 - for 64 bit apps.
now there is also a windows directory called sysWOW64 - for 32 bit applications. and this is the problem i guess. and because aa2 is a 32 bit application, you should find the punkbuster files on a 64 bit computer in this system32 directory. but it was not there for me (and i have a 64bit OS).

solution (i hope):
go to your c:\windows\sysWOW64 directory and copy the following files to c:\windows\system32.

PnkBstrA.exe
PnkBstrB.ex0
PnkBstrB.exe
PnkBstrB.xtr

reboot computer, start 25assist, join server. punkbuster updating will appear, maybe also a kick. then join server again. should work. if not, join 25assist with admin rights, go to install tab and run fix pb.

ps: i did this and now i can join a server without any kick since 20 minutes
« Last Edit: Thursday, November 05, 2020, 13:04:47 PM by [SWISS]Merlin »

Offline LuDi_Bipe

Re: Punkbuster issues
« Reply #28 on: Thursday, November 05, 2020, 14:28:33 PM »
didn't help here :/

Have you tried fix pb after reboot / kick?

I have copied files from SysWOW64 to system32, rebooted PC, got kicked, restarted assist (quit instead of fix pb now), got kicked again

Offline teddy_grizzly_bear

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Re: Punkbuster issues
« Reply #29 on: Thursday, November 05, 2020, 14:53:11 PM »
i guess i did find the solution now - with credits to aapg player Wraiths_Defiler and SF][-General_alkos!

it seems really like a problem of windows 10. there is a windows directory called system32 - for 64 bit apps.
now there is also a windows directory called sysWOW64 - for 32 bit applications. and this is the problem i guess. and because aa2 is a 32 bit application, you should find the punkbuster files on a 64 bit computer in this system32 directory. but it was not there for me (and i have a 64bit OS).

solution (i hope):
go to your c:\windows\sysWOW64 directory and copy the following files to c:\windows\system32.

PnkBstrA.exe
PnkBstrB.ex0
PnkBstrB.exe
PnkBstrB.xtr

reboot computer, start 25assist, join server. punkbuster updating will appear, maybe also a kick. then join server again. should work. if not, join 25assist with admin rights, go to install tab and run fix pb.

ps: i did this and now i can join a server without any kick since 20 minutes
I also noticed the PnkBstrA.exe and PnkBstrB.exe were in the SysWOW64 folder. But since I don't regularly used Windows nowadays, I assumed it was fine.

But on my end, like mentioned, the files are in the SysWOW64 folder and only there (although there are log files under System32). And it seems to work just fine.
<image removed due to imgur stuff - probably for the best>

"Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true." Bertrand Russell

 

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