PnkBstrB.exe "Restart the Service"

[Thawk]

I found the fix for PunkbusterB to just set it to "restart the service" after you select it in services but when I join a server and still get kicked, but when I want back into the "Services" and went to PnkBstrB.exe it had reset everything back to "Take No Action"

Does anyone know how I can stop it from changing back to "Take No Action" after I join a server?

[thepalerider]

After you set it to "restart the service" for each drop down, restart PnkBstrB.exe. This works for me...most of the time.

Good luck

[Thawk]

Restarted it and it still doesn't work, everything is reset after I get kicked still. Annoying as hell.

[bad_nade]

I'm very curious why anyone should tweak PunkBuster service's recovery settings at the first place? For me it sounds like there is something else broken, but instead of finding and fixing the root cause, you are merely trying to cope with the symptoms.

I'd like to know what settings you have made to your computers to make PunkBuster services crash:

• Did you use any compatibility settings during installation of BF2 & its patches, PR or PunkBuster?
• Did you encounter any difficulties during installs?
• Do you have UAC on or off? In Win7, at which level UAC is set to?
• Are you using administrator rights when running PR?
• Have you installed PR to a nonstandard location?
• Have you moved BF2 to an another location afterwards using Windows' standard drag&drop or copy&paste tools?

[thepalerider]

Your post got me to thinking Clueless_noob, you make a good point.

* Did you use any compatibility settings during installation of BF2 & its patches, PR or PunkBuster?
Yes at least for BF2 and PR
* Did you encounter any difficulties during installs?
Yes. Patch for 8 and 9 failed. Installing with FULL installer worked
* Do you have UAC on or off? In Win7, at which level UAC is set to?
ON (Vista64 prem)
* Are you using administrator rights when running PR?
Yes
* Have you installed PR to a nonstandard location?
Yes. Have two installs. Org. on "C". Backup on "E" ( I have a 'mirror' directory on "E": E:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2\mods\pr
(drag and drop copy of program files from "C" with everything but EA deleted. New update etc only need "C" changed to "E")
* Have you moved BF2 to an another location afterwards using Windows' standard drag&drop or copy&paste tools?
Yes to "E". Can't remember ever installing to "E" with DVD.

After reading your post Clueless_noob I check on my PunkBuster B :
Path:
E:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2\pb\PunkBuster B
And found it was not running as Admin or under compatibility settings.
I changed it to run as Admin and compatibility XP SP2
Checking my "C" install both were correctly set (run as Admin and compatibility XP SP2)
My PR shortcut uses "E" install.
Will let you know if I ever get a PnkBstrB.exe error again

[bad_nade]

Oops, somehow this meant-to-be-simple response of mine turned out to a wall of text

thepalerider;1350343']Your post got me to thinking Clueless_noob, you make a good point.

* Did you use any compatibility settings during installation of BF2 & its patches, PR or PunkBuster?
Yes at least for BF2 and PR
* Did you encounter any difficulties during installs?
Yes. Patch for 8 and 9 failed. Installing with FULL installer worked
* Do you have UAC on or off? In Win7, at which level UAC is set to?
ON (Vista64 prem)
* Are you using administrator rights when running PR?
Yes
* Have you installed PR to a nonstandard location?
Yes. Have two installs. Org. on "C". Backup on "E" ( I have a 'mirror' directory on "E": E:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2\mods\pr
(drag and drop copy of program files from "C" with everything but EA deleted. New update etc only need "C" changed to "E")
* Have you moved BF2 to an another location afterwards using Windows' standard drag&drop or copy&paste tools?
Yes to "E". Can't remember ever installing to "E" with DVD.

After reading your post Clueless_noob I check on my PunkBuster B :
Path:
E:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2\pb\PunkBuster B
And found it was not running as Admin or under compatibility settings.
I changed it to run as Admin and compatibility XP SP2
Checking my "C" install both were correctly set (run as Admin and compatibility XP SP2)
My PR shortcut uses "E" install.
Will let you know if I ever get a PnkBstrB.exe error again

This is... how would I put it nicely... interesting

Looks like you are a bit over doing your compatibility settings. All BF2 installers & patches since at least the DVD version I have, can be installed without any compatibility tweaks. The same applies to all BF2 & PR executables too, including the latest 0.917. The only exception I'm aware of is BF2Editor. I can't remember if Windows recognized older BF2 setup files as installers using it's heuristics or did I ran them as an administrator manually, but the compatibility settings were not needed anyway.

What comes to PunkBuster services, they most definitely shouldn't be run with compatibility settings enabled as they are fully Vista aware. In fact, the new security model introduced in Vista was one of reasons for Even Balance to develop these service components. This is explained in their FAQ:
"I'm not really that deep into computers, what is a Windows service component?

The various flavors <bla bla bla>. The new PunkBuster service component PnkBstrA is designed to work under Windows 2000, XP, and Vista."

Running either of the PnkBstrA or PnkBstrB with compatibility settings might have some undesired side effects. They probably won't have access all the API's introduced in Vista or there might be some deprecated API's visible that are simple stubs to enable some degree of backwards compatibility. So it's essential to run PunkBuster in Vista & Win7 without compatiblity settings to enable PunkBuster to detect underlying operating system version correctly.

Disclaimer: I haven't studied the latest Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit enough to know for sure what changes these settings will enforce nor do I know how PunkBuster will behave under compatibility settings.

The nonstandard install location and/or moving files. As far as I know, most of the executables related to BF2 & PR and maybe PunkBuster too, will check Windows registry for the directory they're meant to operate at. For BF2 the registry key in question is:
32 bit Windows:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Electronic Arts\EA Games\Battlefield 2
64 bit Windows:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\EA Games\Battlefield 2
Now, if the original install directory have been moved, the path stored in the registry key above points to a location which may or may not contain BF2 files that may or may not be up to date, which, in turn, might cause an installer, a patcher, pr.exe, bf2.exe or PunkBuster to fail. The actual results will depend heavily on what files still exist at the original location.

I don't know enough about PunkBuster's inner life to tell what files it tries to update when doing auto updates during game play, but according to time stamps of several files, it looks like all the updated files reside at %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\PunkBuster\BF2\pb. Nevertheless, having the actual location of the game and the path stored in the registry in sync won't hurt, that's for sure.

PunkBuster services, as they are native Windows services, gets their executable paths from the location specified at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\PnkBstrA
where a value named ImagePath points to the actual file, usually:
C:\Windows\PnkBstrA.exe
In 64 bit Windows the same path resolves to:
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\PnkBstrA.exe

When PunkBuster is started by a game, it registers second service with the name PnkBstrB and executable PnkBstrB.exe, using a path similar to that of PnkBstrA. No matter where your PB's executables are, the path in the registry key above is the only one that matters because at the time the service starts, Windows it self is in control, not a game.

So it is possible, but unlikely, that your PnkBstrX's are really executed from your E:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2\pb directory instead of C:\Windows\System32. And if they are, I wonder how in the earth they ended up there as the installer puts them under C:\Windows\System32 by default?

Then there is also funny little creatures like UAC Virtualization and backward compatible home directory tree, but I think they are beoynd the scope of this post.