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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
12 years ago

PnkBstrB.exe heartbeats stopped / Error 130827

Accidentally posted this to the BF4 forums earlier, figured I may get more help here...

So I've been struggling with this problem for a while, and after digging through my logs I found this in PunkBuster's (C:\Users\~USER~\AppData\Local\PunkBuster\BF4\pb\pbcl.log):

Service Communication Failure: PnkBstrB.exe heartbeats stopped
RESTRICTION: Disallowed Program/Driver


I investigated my services and saw that only PnkBstrA was running (no PnkBstrB) so I uninstalled, re-installed, and updated Punkbuster. Still nothing, and I always seem to get kicked during the start of a new game - I can join mid-game and play through but when it cycles to a new map/game, I get booted for Error 130827 - effectively 100% of the time.

So, I ran pbsvc.exe and was reading through the output and noticed this:

Manually stopping PnkBstrB STOPPED
Removing test PnkBstrB file OK

Both of those are colored green which appears to denote it is the 'accepted' state (I've also see red 'failed' messages as well as a blue message that doesn't seem to trigger a failed test.

So it seems that for whatever reason, Punkbuster is testing for heartbeats on a service that it removed itself. I haven't found a solution yet, as I assume this is on the folks at EvenBalance.com but who knows when they'll get around to addressing this. I really wish there were some other industry alternative because PB has seemed to cause more headaches throughout the years than any other 3rd party system I can recall (and that's including GameSpy).

Edit: grammar and clarification

Edit 2: Also, after running pbsvc.exe it seems to restore the service listing (see screenshot here http://imgur.com/A5OjCDQ.jpg [imgur.com] ), however it doesn't seem to be started. I've gone into the properties and chanced the recovery options for first failure, second failure, and subsequent failures to "Restart the Service" and started up the service.. I am disabling my AV (Microsoft Security Essentials) and am going to try a couple rounds. I'll update here with the results.

Edit 3: After reboot, the PnkBstrB service has started (as opposed to it's post-install state of stopped). I'm going to launch and see what happens.

Edit 4: Whelp, it was nice while it lasted. I actually got two back-to-back games, but in between the second and third, I got " PunkBuster kicked player 'SilentBobSC' (for 0 minutes) ... RESTRICTION: Disallowed Program/Driver " again.

I checked Task Manager and PnkBstrB is gone, and it's no longer listed under Computer Management > Services anymore either or when I check MSCONFIG > Services. It had been in each of those places previous to my starting the game. My AV is disabled, and I'm not running any extraneous apps or browser addons. This is getting ridiculous. Going to try a reboot and see if it comes back.

Edit 5: Post reboot, PnkbstrB is still gone from any services listing (Computer Management > Services and Applications > Service, Windows Task Manager > Services, or MSCONFIG > Services).

Something happened during the game's execution/loading that stripped any trace of PnkbstrB from existence.

I'm trying to keep my cool here, but I've spent more time trying to fix an EA / EvenBalance problem than I have to when fixing major networking issues at my full time job.

battlefield 4

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  • swoosh1310's avatar
    swoosh1310
    12 years ago

    i know exactly what your going through my friend and as paying customers for a 3rd party product that clearly fails we should have answers to this issue which has been with me from the day i loaded it onto my pc boxing day as a christmas pressent .Trying to get an answer from E.A or infact evenbalance whos **bleep** program it is is like tring to find rocking horse **bleep** .

  • swoosh1310's avatar
    swoosh1310
    12 years ago

      03/05/2014 13:51:16 - "Alex J"     Note #28: Firstly, I apologize for the delay in response to this issue. This kick only occurs for a small number of users and we don't know what program may be causing the conflict. We are still investing the issue.

    A few users have reported that repeated alt-tabbing seemed to cause the kick to occur, we are investing this.

    Secondly, if you are willing to assist in helping to resolve the issue, we looking for users that can provide information from the windows Event Viewer.

    You can find the Even Viewer from the Control Panel->System and Security->Administrative Tools->View event logs

    Once Event Viewer is open, on the left you should see “Windows Logs”, click to expand.
    Search the Application and Security logs to see if there is any error messages regarding the PunkBuster services.

    If you find logs related to PunkBuster services, you can copy the log line by right-clicking and selecting “Copy Details as Text”. Copy and paste the lines into a new note here on the trouble ticket.     02/23/2014 06:31:23 - "[47th]Swoosh1310"     Note #27: this is not acceptable your program is still blocking my enjoyment .you must know what the error is it has a number attached to it tell me how to get it sorted as im getting pissed off from a paid customer that is still left with a faulty product nearly 3 months later on,or i go to trading standards in the uk to see about highlighting this issue and what my next course of action should be.Dont ask me to trial and error your program from 40+ programs that i have sent you to establish if possible the answer that your program wont allow through.7 days and the matter goes further.

  • swoosh1310's avatar
    swoosh1310
    12 years ago

    02/19/2014 12:52:15 - "[47th]Swoosh1310"     Note #21: [02.17.2014 13:04:13] Service Communication Failure: PnkBstrB.exe heartbeats stopped
    [02.17.2014 13:04:57] RESTRICTION: Disallowed Program/Driver [130827]
    [02.18.2014 16:02:26] Service Communication Failure: PnkBstrB.exe heartbeats stopped
    [02.18.2014 16:03:17] RESTRICTION: Disallowed Program/Driver [130827]
    [02.18.2014 18:28:27] Service Communication Failure: PnkBstrB.exe heartbeats stopped
    [02.18.2014 18:29:14] RESTRICTION: Disallowed Program/Driver [130827]
    [02.18.2014 18:49:19] Service Communication Failure: PnkBstrB.exe heartbeats stopped
    [02.18.2014 19:29:24] Service Communication Failure: PnkBstrB.exe heartbeats stopped
    [02.18.2014 19:30:26] RESTRICTION: Disallowed Program/Driver [130827]
    [02.18.2014 19:44:02] Service Communication Failure: PnkBstrB.exe heartbeats stopped
    [02.18.2014 19:44:57] RESTRICTION: Disallowed Program/Driver [130827]
    [02.19.2014 15:50:04] Service Communication Failure: PnkBstrB.exe heartbeats stopped
    [02.19.2014 15:50:55] RESTRICTION: Disallowed Program/Driver [130827]
    [02.19.2014 16:03:10] Service Communication Failure: PnkBstrB.exe heartbeats stopped
    [02.19.2014 17:10:36] Service Communication Failure: PnkBstrB.exe heartbeats stopped
    [02.19.2014 17:11:17] RESTRICTION: Disallowed Program/Driver [130827]     02/17/2014 12:08:34 - "Alex J"     Note #20: Something on your computer is blocking/conflicting with the PB services.

    If you run some type of personal firewall or security software, make sure that you configure it to fully allow our services, especially PnkBstrA.exe.

    These kicks are most often caused by our PnkBstrA.exe service failing to properly install our PnkBstrB.exe service during gameplay.

    Also, several Windows 7 users have reported that the following steps corrected the issue for them:

      1. login as an Administrator user
      1. open Windows Explorer and browse to c:\windows\system32 (or wherever the windows folder is on your machine) - note: if you run Windows 7 64 bit, you need to browse to c:\windows\syswow64 instead
      1. scroll down and find PnkBstrA.exe
      1. right-click PnkBstrA.exe and choose Properties
      1. click the Compatiblity tab
      1. click the button at the bottom of the window that reads "Change settings for all users"
      1. click the checkbox for "Run this program as an administrator"
      1. click the "Ok" buttons to accept the changes and get back out.



    Then try playing again.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    11 years ago

    Hi

    I've been trying many many solutions (including that above) to solve my case of ' PnkBstrB heartbeats stopped ' .... In my case, it seems my HDD was  not responding so fast as it should ( I even changed the relative services to re-run themselves in case of fail and I set pb_sleep 500 variable my pbcl.cfg file ) ...

    I repaired the game and nothing ... uninstalled, defragmented , and downloaded + installed again and nothing ... Then i checked on Task Manager / Resource Monitor and saw BF4 makes system read / write a lot of big files (i.e. maps, textures, weapons and so on)

    So today tried something new ...  decreased the Virtual Memory to 0 (and making the system only use the RAM) ...  Still testing on many servers, but after 4 or 5 matches, everything is ok and no more kicking without reason.

    * I used to have this Punkbuster error almost in every match I used to enter, no matter the location, ping, or the map played.

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