WB & Punkbuster

We would like to test this out on our end. Could you start a formal ticket with us at support@stardock.com? Please link this forum post as a reference.

Sure thing, I'll send one over asap!

Also something I forgot to ask was if you had punk buster though 2142 only or did it install from multiple games.

I have it for multiple games, but each time an installer asked me to install Punkbuster I have. I also update Punkbuster on each game that gives me this problem. So far 2142 has been the only game not to, which I find strange.

EDIT: Support ticket has been filed, Ticket ID OTS-725534 - For some reason its listed under Support - Activation, I knew I should have logged in rather than sending an email in.  :NOTSURE: 

Punkbuster has had issues with WB in the past.  I think their last update caused this, not WB.  Any word from their support process?

But that wouldn't explain why 2142 works flawlessly even without setting it to the excluded list. Not even BF2 lets me play if its excluded.

They update their software regularly, since this has been an issue for a long time I highly doubt a recent or most recent update did this.

I tried over the weekend with a fresh copy of 2142 and WindowBlinds installed and I could not get the error to occur. We will have to help you through the support channels from here. I think it could have something to do with multiple installs of PunkBuster. I have had many troubles with PunkBuster in the past with all sorts of software. It still bears looking into so I am looking forward to digging deeper on this.

Yes, 2142 was the only game to NOT have a problem. It was BF2 that no matter what I did would kick me unless WB was unloaded. I had a problem with Call of Duty 4 but that was resolved by setting the EXE to the excluded list in WB, BF2 still doesn't seem to want to play nice even if I try adding it to the excluded list.

I heard that BF2 they had to modify the way Punkbuster worked due to a latency issue with servers that many people had been getting - basically people where getting kicked or losing connection from servers and the issue was semi related to Punkbuster. As far as I know 2142 didn't have this happen which makes me wonder if this change in the way PB behaves in BF2 is the reason I keep getting booted.

I don't have BF2 available to me at this moment. Can anyone out there confirm this for me? If you like you can send me a PM to confirm it should you prefer that. If I can get some replication out of this issue we can move it forward into Q&A.

I can't find my BF2 disk, although maybe the demo would work.  America's Army also uses Punkbuster so I'm downloading that to see if that reproduces anything.

In all likelyhood, there's probably nothing that can be done other than to unload WB at the time or get Punkbuster to look for wblind.dll being i there.

Punkbuster looks for unrecognized things that are part of the game process.  Wblind.dll gets inserted into every process on creation. Punkbuster flags it as being suspect. 

Astyanax0 I am having the same problem. I was running Vista Ultimate 32 and was having connection and punkbuster problems with BF2. I did a complete reload of my system and switched to the 64 bit version of Vista. The first program I reloaded was BF2. I played for 2 days straight without a problem. I slowly loaded in my other programs playing BF in between. I had no troubles even after loading up impulse and windowblinds, but when I changed my theme my troubles started up again. First I got the unkown API kick, then I started having timeouts on my connection when trying to log in. Thought I would just let you know its not you. If I unload windowblinds and reboot it seems to work again.

BF2+Punkbuster does not like WindowBlinds.. forgot the error message but it is a known issue in the BF2+Punkbuster community

I have the same problem, but i have it with battlefield 2142. Have you found any solutions?

Other than unloading WB when I play BF2, nope..

Excuse the bump for such an old thread but this is off a freshly reinstalled game, all the patches, PunkBuster updates, and WindowBlinds 7 Beta2.  Here are some info thus far:

Windows 7 x64 RC, WindowBlinds 7 Beta2, BF2 1.50 w/ latest PunkBuster files, Call of Duty: World at War is also installed which I will refer to later.

I have gone through the hassle of reverting my theme to Vista's Aero Glass just to play BF2 but after a while, I stopped playing altogether.  Since then I do not know of any PB updates.  However, this is a fresh install, with all the updates, and nothing really out of the ordinary.  I reinstalled the game due to the 1.5 update and I tried to play on a server to test the water.  About a couple of minutes into running around, I get kicked for the ol' Unknown Windows API error.  Once I had reverted my theme back to stock, I was able to play on the server without any issue.

I have already added the BF2.exe file into the Per App list and told it to not skin it.  Yet I am still getting kicked.  By comparison, I have played Call of Duty: World at War without issue and without any problem, and PunkBuster plays nice with it.

I know that Even Balance can be a pain in the rear for not actively supporting pre-release version of Windows.  But I kinda wish they would be more open to the notion that people can use RC builds as a temporary stay until the retail build is available to all.  I have tried to google for solutions but so far, I cannot find a definitive solution that can resolve this one and only lingering issue.  I am at a loss and I do not know what else to try.  I'd send a ticket to Even Balance but once they get wind that I am running Win7 RC, they'll spout their usual BS of not supporting pre-release versions of Windows.  I am hoping that someone out there may have an answer or that someone at Stardock could help get in touch with Even Balance to have them get off of their high horse and help resolve an ancient issue.