Punkbuster Issues
Solution If you find yourself being kicked by punkbuster, the first thing you should attempt is to manually update your punkbuster software.

You can do this with a very simple program "pbsetup.exe" from evenbalance.

You can download the program from this page:
http://evenbalance.com/index.php?page=pbsetup.php

This is not a hard program to use, but please read through the instructions on that page carefully.

The best part of using pbsetup.exe is that you will be able to update ALL of your punkbuster protected games at the same time using this program. Simply follow the instructions to add more games into its list before pressing "update"

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Tip: I highly recomend that once you download the pbestup.exe you create a folder to store it in (I just named mine punkbuster and placed it on the C drive; you can name it and place it where you want). When you run it, it will create a bunch of files in that location (and you probably don't want to clutter up your desktop with it).

Keep that pbsetup.exe program and use it occasionally to ensure all your games stay up to date (punkbuster releases updates for all of their games on a varying schedule, the more games you have that use pb, the more often you will want to run this).

Tip 2:If you find yourself using it often, make yourself a shortcut to pbsetup and stick whereever you commonly keep your game startup shortcuts

Tip 3: Are you using Vista? Unless you have changed your security settings, you will need to launch pbsetup.exe as admin. To do this: right click on the icon and select "run as admin". If you plan on keeping this program and using it often, you can set it to "always run as admin" in the security tab by right clicking and going to propertys.

Tip 4: As with any update or patch you may want to reboot after its been run and before you launch a game to play. This helps ensure any registry entrys created are saved properly; and that all older data is cleared from memory/cache.

This especially effects the punk buster files that run at system startup, though they are not updated as often as some of the other pb files, when they are; you will continue to experience pb errors until those files are restarted along with your computer.

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The purpose of using the punkbuster manual update?

While most games that use punkbuster are designed to autoupdate either before or during your gameplay, this can cause errors depending on your security settings; and even when your security settings arent the problem you may experience a slower connection as punkbuster is using some of your bandwith. By making manual updates a regular part of your routine you ensure a smoother more compatable experience with punkbuster protected games.

It's up to you if you decide to use the manual updater or trust the auto updaters. I personally find the auto updater to be especially slow on days when there are big punkbuster updates (they have only a limited number of pb servers feeding them to you) and because I have nearly every punkbuster protected game installed its simply faster to have them all updated in 1 click, than to log into each game and wait for them to individually auto-update.

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It should also be noted that punkbuster may not be able to auto update itself unless you are the admin for your computer (and running your games "as admin in vista").

Article Details
Article ID: 38
Created On: 04 Oct 2007 12:55 PM

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