Re: punkbuster

BF4DB has nothing to do with punkbuster, they are a third party anti cheat and if they make decisions to announce their disloyalty to EB then that's up to them. They are in the same boat as everyone else, they ultimately cannot see what Evenbalance do on their side and what evidence they gather and they are certainly not out of business as bans are still being distributed and new violations are coming into effect.

Btw, I read everything you say but it doesn't change my views on it and I don't expect you to change your views but I see these threads can be one sided (I don't think anyone who hasn't been banned really cares)  so I'm probably wasting my time too but after all it's a discussion and there is more than one side to it.

@OttoVP @Builtthiscityon_So frustrating! And total BS. If this is indeed the case why don't they just disable punkbuster as there is no recourse on this?  i've been playing this game for years and bf4 was my fav. I've dealt with all the EA B.S. and stayed loyal but not after this sh%$.  They've lost a customer forever and it sounds like they'll lose many more.  I can only hope this doesn't happen to either of you.  Thanks for all the info. 

@OttoVP @Builtthiscityon_  Update, bought a new HD.  Loaded Win10 on it, (had Win7) installed BF4/PB and still unable to play. So this is something on EB end that I can't even control? I've done everything in my power to try to fix it? Any ideas? EA?   

@Actionj123 

If you used your same Origin player account to attempt to connect with your new hardware setup; you will find that you are still globally banned. Your player GUID is banned, nothing you do with regards to your hardware will make any difference. You could purchase the game again, and with new hardware/software...if there was a false positive due to hardware/software that was the cause of the ban initially, you would be able to play again. However, you will have start your player persona from scratch. It will also be interesting to note if you are banned again with the new hardware/software setup: ie. a video card driver that is the same as you used prior but new HDD etc, and do not cheat, there exists a sure sign that your initial ban on your old hardware/software setup was due to a hardware/software issue. If that is the case, I would state that the ban issued to your GUID was due to a false positive trigger of PB due to some hardware or software item. There is also the chance that your new GUID could be hacked and used for cheating by the hacker that stole it. This would also trigger a ban...

There is now testimony on a YouTube podcast where a anonymous hacker stated that Russians had compromised a security flaw in EA owned software (probably Origin or Battlelog) where they could steal thousands of accounts and did steal thousands of accounts. They then sold these accounts to players that used them to cheat. I would gamble that this is the reason we have seen so many thousands of legit players accounts being banned this past year. However, as EB will not share any information about what or how PB was triggered, and EA will not fully investigate the matter, players are left with no recourse. (that is how you and many others end up here, posting on this forum)

To add: No player can tell if any of these bans that have occurred over the last year have been due to hacked/stolen accounts that were then used by the thief to cheat on PB enabled servers, thus causing a ban of a legit players GUID. Because EA will not look into it thoroughly: no player/consumer will know for certain if indeed a compromise of EA's account security protocols have occurred. This should be highly alarming for EA as this will directly effect their bottom line as rightly it should. I do not know many consumers whom will take the chance of spending their money with a company whom does not have proper security protections in place to ensure that theft of purchased product use is not compromised. 

The ball is in EA's court and they know it. Otto may state that EA has nothing to do with it, as he has stated many times before. However, he is wholly incorrect. I will state it clearly once again: 

Contract law stipulates that when one party "Contractee or Principle" (EA) enters into an agreement with another party "Vendor or Contractor" (Evenbalance), to act in some fashion based upon the writ of the contract (provide anti-cheat software), the person/contractor (Evenbalance) that gains (paid $) on the basis of action/motion on behalf of the contract, is in fact operating as an agent of the contractee/entity (EA).

Here is the Black's Law definition of an agent in fact:
A person or entity authorized by another (principal or entity) to act for or in place of him; one instructed with another's business.

This means that Evenbalance is a contracted agent in fact of EA due to their contractual agreement to provide anti-cheat software in exchange for money or interest.

Bottom line:

If indeed EA software was compromised, they have the duty to correct those security flaws and financially rectify the issue with those effected consumers. EA may have taken steps to rectify the security flaws however they have done nothing to compensate all those thousands of players who had their accounts stolen...if in fact that is what occurred.

If a false positive ban issuance has occurred within Evenbalance software PB, EA also has a duty to investigate and rectify the flaw in their agents contracted service. This would mean that they need to compensate all of those players effected by the false positive bans or they need to force their agent in fact to unban those players, as EB currently operates and has operated as agents of EA.

Again, it is crystal clear as to what needs to happen.

EA has shown that they care not. Due to this, unless they choose to act, I would imagine that only insane or stupid (or both) individuals would continue to purchase products from EA. With that said: I believe EA and there lack of action would determine that there are MANY more stupid people that would simply continue to support patronage of EA owned games even though those individuals will possibly and willfully have their money stolen from them. Due to this, why would EA care to look into matters such as this...as it does them no good...unless the wrongfully banned player count grows so large as to make an impact!

I will also mention that EA_ATIC will soon be along to close this thread with no rebuttal as to the truth of the contractual and therefore legal obligation that EA has regarding these bans.

Something along the lines of:

"sounds like you have been banned in Battlefield 4 by Punkbuster. I recommend that you read up this article on what you need to do: https://help.ea.com/en-in/help/battlefield/punkbuster-bans-and-violations/"

or

"EA has no effect on Evenbalance, you need to contact them directly at"

or 

EA will wholly ignore the truth of what I have stated and not respond in any fashion and not lock this thread (for now). 

Here you go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n-QXCRqlC0&feature=emb_logo

if that link doesn't work:

https://youtu.be/3n-QXCRqlC0

@USMCss07 @OttoVP  Thanks guys.  Makes sense, but I hope the hell my account hasn't been compromised and sold? WTF? I would like to know what's going on though as would the thousand of others I'm sure?  I know they can easily trace this stuff?  Grrrr....I will not be buying any EA products anytime soon and I've spoken with my friends at length about this.  Now will they.  Thoughts were that they are trying to shutdown BF4 seeing how there are issues with servers showing up on lists of servers to play as well?  Makes you kind of wonder?  I don't know what to think, but I do very much appreciate your feedback and insight!  Thank You both.  I reached out to the guys who's servers I plan on mostly.  TBGClan (good dudes)  and they said the same thing, basically it's the kiss of death with no response or resolution.  Guess I'm going to sit tight for now, wait and listen.  

Replying to this to say that I'm having the exact same problem. Been playing BF4 for over six years now, never cheated or hacked, and somewhere about two months ago I started getting kicked from every server by Punkbuster for "Gamehack #81671". Punkbuster has been checked, updated and working fine. Just this week I wiped Windows 7 and upgraded to Windows 10 in hopes this would fix it. No luck. Getting kicked for the same reason. Everything I've researched basically tells me I'm * outta luck. This sucks.  I built my PC specifically for BF4 (and Bioshock Infinite).

Fortunately I can still play BF3, but it mostly makes me miss BF4. I've even gone so far as to start playing Call of Duty (but playing it on my six year old PC isn't very smooth).

Le sigh...

@USMCss07 @OttoVP @Builtthiscityon_ Hot Metal Action, nice name.  All I have to say is you won't find ANY help from EA here.  I've gotten more info from other players than EA.  They have been silent on the issue and It's pathetic honestly.   I had a thought though, not that it will help in any way now? Seeing how there's no logs of what causes that gamehack error???.  I know that Origin is tied into your default browser  somehow I believe? Going way back I had an issue with IE and had to change it to chrome.  Anyway, I noticed recently in chrome that there is video hardware support in the browser and it was enabled by default?  BTW my system had been blue screening prior to me disabling it!!  Could that be it?  If that is the case, do plug in's affect that at all as well?  Could that have caused our false flagging?  Any software engineers in the house that aren't cheating? F!#$@##$%