PunkBuster + Realtek crashes PC in EA games / Help needed!

[mizudg]

So a friend of mine had recently given up on playing Battlefield 3 after he bought Premium thanks to an annoying glitch, which according to forums and some EA sources is due to PunkBuster and Realtek not correctly working together. Fair enough, he swallowed the fact that he paid $30 for Premium just to stop playing the game but now with the new HumbleBundle, the same issue occurs in Medal of Honor. To say the least, he is pissed and mostly angry at EA for... you guessed it, them having their "Top agents working on the issue" for more than 3 years now! (since BC2)

Not to call that I know any better, but those top agents should've long since been replaced with other people who know what they are actually doing and find a real fix to it. I was wondering if anyone on the forums had an issue such as this one and knows of a REAL fix around it so we can resume playing BC2, BF3 and MoH2010...

He tried uninstalling Realtek as some suggested but his audio dies afterwards and so does his microphone. He re-installed PunkBuster and still gets his computer shut down after a couple of minutes in-game so please, I beg of you, if anyone knows a fix to this or at least a temporary work-around until "EA's TOP AGENTS" work it out ._. Help appreciated

[Kerrigan]

http://goo.gl/xkmOqm

This could be a actual solution for your issue.

Strange that mostly sound devices are causing compability problems.

[beastybell]

Tell him to disable the audio from the bios, then boot into "Safe Mode" , go to control panel, uninstall all realtek stuff, then go to > right click my computer> properties> in the right left corner device manager, then > view in the upper menu, " Show Hidden Devices" and check if there is anything left from the audio. Now you have to find little nifty tool called- "Driver Sweeper 3.2.0" And delete the remaining dlls with it, >uninstall all punkbuster from control panel too> reboot. Install only punkbuster and leave the pc without sound and test if it works,

If all is good, tell hom to buy usb audio card , they are under 40$ now.

BTW: Ask him if this happens with nvida card, because some of the latest drivers are so buggy 32xxx series, second are you sure it is not the Power Supply? Maybe there is not enough juice? Did he tried with another PSU? If not deffective video card? It might not be realteks fault in this case, try everything else first!

Note: some games doesn't boot if there are no sound card present.

[Kerrigan]

First try the solution i posted before considering to buy anything..

[mizudg]

First try the solution i posted before considering to buy anything..

He already bought Premium and until then it didn't happen really... but now with MOH too... come on, this is just annoying. I sent him the link, he will try it later when he sees it, and thanks for the quick reply, to both you and the other guy

[mizudg]

Tell him to disable the audio from the bios, then boot into "Safe Mode" , go to control panel, uninstall all realtek stuff, then go to > right click my computer> properties> in the right left corner device manager, then > view in the upper menu, " Show Hidden Devices" and check if there is anything left from the audio. Now you have to find little nifty tool called- "Driver Sweeper 3.2.0" And delete the remaining dlls with it, >uninstall all punkbuster from control panel too> reboot. Install only punkbuster and leave the pc without sound and test if it works,

If all is good, tell hom to buy usb audio card , they are under 40$ now.

BTW: Ask him if this happens with nvida card, because some of the latest drivers are so buggy 32xxx series, second are you sure it is not the Power Supply? Maybe there is not enough juice? Did he tried with another PSU? If not deffective video card? It might not be realteks fault in this case, try everything else first!

Note: some games doesn't boot if there are no sound card present.

He has a 5850 or something like that, not sure about the number but it's 100% not NVidia.

[Kerrigan]

He already bought Premium and until then it didn't happen really... but now with MOH too... come on, this is just annoying. I sent him the link, he will try it later when he sees it, and thanks for the quick reply, to both you and the other guy

I meant the hardware beastybell was mentioning.

You should try the solution from BL i posted before trying that USB-Soundcard thingy.

[mizudg]

He already bought Premium and until then it didn't happen really... but now with MOH too... come on, this is just annoying. I sent him the link, he will try it later when he sees it, and thanks for the quick reply, to both you and the other guy

I meant the hardware beastybell was mentioning.

You should try the solution from BL i posted before trying that USB-Soundcard thingy.

Here is what he told me he did but for some reason couldn't post it (too spammy for new user? Nice integration of an anti-spam system btw)

Hey, I'm the friend in question. I tried every single fix i could find, including uninstalling, reinstalling PB and realtek, still had those problems. I tried unchecking the "take exclusive control of this device". Tried updating my graphics and audio drivers, tried wiping and updating again. Tried some other fixes involving regedit and such. After that i lost hope.

Then came along medal of honor and when it crashed too i completely uninstalled realtek, then when i restarted my PC just found some audio driver automatically, it's not Realtek though.


I've also completely uninstalled and reinstalled punk buster a couple of times, i just did it today and made sure the punk buster services are running.

Basically, i've tried it all except a complete reinstall of windows, i think that could work, but frankly, i'd rather go play something else.

He is trying your fixes now and is currently in-game to check if it crashes his PC again. Though this is rather bull, isn't it? For EA to not fix this for 3 years. I Mean, granted, they are EA but still ._.

[mizudg]

You know, I just realised why this is happening to me. You see, its not a bug, its a feature. AE cares about their customers' well being, so after one or two games your entire PC freezes, so you don't play too much. Then you'll have more time to work and earn some money that you can spend on other quality AE products. And this feature also sponsors sales of external USB sound cards, so everybody wins!

Well, thanks for the help guys, but none of the fixes so far have helped him. I think it's a problem in his sound card in general but he refuses to get a new one just because only EA's games are giving him this error

[Kerrigan]

Well, thanks for the help guys, but none of the fixes so far have helped him. I think it's a problem in his sound card in general but he refuses to get a new one just because only EA's games are giving him this error

Well to exclude the issue: What happens if he disables the Realtek Audio Device in the Device Manager of Windows ?
With the sound disabled PB shouldn't cause a conflict anymore.

If the game doesn't crash without Realtek, the issue is caused by it definitively.

If you decide to buy a soundcard, buy a Creative.