Bad Company 2 lockups

[ran93r]

Picked this up during the summer wallet rape and have played through the SP with no problems but multiplayer is a different story. I get hard lockups that require a PC reboot to fix.

I have been through a number of longwinded fixes under the assumption that it's punkbuster at fault. Nothing has cured the issue though. I have yet to try games on a non PB server so that's my next step to narrow this down but wondered if anybody else suffered from this and managed to cure it?

Win7 64, Radeon HD5800 (for what it's worth)

[Wolfenswan]

Game freezes and Sound loops?

[ran93r]

I have only had the sound on a stutter-loop once, usually it just graphically locks up. Can't tab out, can't "3 finger salute".

The possible issues I have attacked so far are: (1) Punkbuster - followed this advice.
(2) Realtek audio - I have removed all realtek drivers as I'm running a Sennheiser headset with it's own audio card anyway.

I'm not running the Steam overlay, I don't have raptr running just in case that overlay causes issues (generally PB will just go nuts instantly with the overlays anyway, not wait until you are a good ways into a game).

Played a match on a non punkbuster server and didn't lock up but that was just one conquest match. I have managed to sometimes get a full match without a lockup on a PB server (although that was only once).

Not overclocking or using any hardware monitoring apps that I can think of, so now I'm at a loss.

[Wolfenswan]

Strange, i had said error about every 15 minutes in a game and was usually able to alt-tab out after a while.

What (apparently so far!) has worked for me was changing the "speakercount=x" value in the settings.ini (my documents->BFBC2) to 2 instead of 0.

[ran93r]

It does seem like a 50/50 split between punkbuster or sound, will give your suggestion a try later and see how I get on, thanks.

[ran93r]

Didn't help I'm afraid.

Spent some time scouring the intorwobs again today and even disabled a few more services in addition to the config change. I got about 15mins in and then a nice lockup.

If they confirm Punkbuster (and I'm 99% sure it's PB at fault) for BF3, then I might have to skip it. I could get the PS3 version but I would feel dirty playing it on a console.

I haven't played BF since BF2 and was really enjoying the games I did play, right pain in the arse this turned out to be.

[duff]

I'd try the following.

- uninstall BC2 and then clean install.
- before you play manually update punkbuster using this - http://www.evenbalance.com/index.php?page=pbsetup.php

Try it again.

If that doesn't work uninstall your video drivers (maybe use driver cleaner to be completely clean) and then reinstall them. Restart and then try BC2 again.

If that doesn't work then go into your router settings and check to see if UPNP is disabled. If its not then disable it and try again.

If it still doesn't work it might be worth changing your video card to see if that solves the problem, but if you change to nvidia be sure to fully clean the ati stuff off your system first.

Please excuse the grammar, I'm very tired!

[Quetzal]

Have you perhaps tried to disable Steam Overlay?

My 5850 system had graphic anomalies and crashed upon joining MP games with the overlay on.

Worth trying!

[westyfield]

- before you play manually update punkbuster using this - http://www.evenbalance.com/index.php?page=pbsetup.php

Definitely try this, it's fixed a lot of problems for me (though I've never had a problem like you describe).

[ran93r]

Thanks for the suggestions, I have been hitting up Reddit for the same issue and I'm still no closer to fixing the problem.

[duff]

Also please try disabling UPNP in your router, it might sound stupid but it worked for me getting freeze then d/c several minutes into each game.

[ran93r]

Curious, will give that a shot later on and let you know if it helps, happy to try anything at this point.

Update: give that a shot but still no joy.
Also tried disabling virtually every service that wasn't required for that session.

I have at this point opened an EvenBalance support ticket but I doubt that will be of much use.

Hoping BF3 doesn't do this.

[MiniMatt]

Had the same thing, went through sound drivers, punkbuster updates what finally fixed it was removing hardware monitoring via RivaTuner. There are a few googlies out there pointing to a hardware monitoring - punkbuster scrap, oft mentioned with speedfan rather than riva tuner and there are a few fixes too but I found it easier just to shut down rivatuner whilst playing.

[ran93r]

I wish I could find anything similar. I haven't intentionally installed any monitoring apps and have tried disabling anything that looks suspect, even to the point of killing off the service that hangs off the catalyst control centre.

I'm completely convinced it's PB causing the issue as I have been playing on non-PB servers the last couple of days without issue.

I got a response back from EvenBalance via my support ticket saying reinstall, check firewall etc. I feel like facepalming as I had already explained that I have been through that.

/throws hands in the air