BFBC2 Technical Support

[Subzero]

for anyone who reads these fourms. there has been alot of trouble with BC2 servers, like today people could not login to their EA account because EA master server went down due to overload, on top of this theres ongoing problems with PB aswell, all we can do is update PB manually and let the server admins sort out the rest, there will be no more servers put up until the problem with EA master
server is fixed

[Subzero]

Punkbuster Disconnection Issues

We are aware that some customers have been experiencing issues connecting to Bad Company 2 servers due to Punkbuster. We have manually updated all of the servers to the latest version of Punkbuster so you will need to update your game client version manually if you continue to experience issues.


As indicated at the bottom of the game in the news ticker, if you are experiencing PB issues you need to try the following:



# Uninstall the BETA of Bad Company 2 if you ever had this installed.

# Manually update Punkbuster. You can do this by visiting http://websec.evenbalance.com/downloader/download.php?file=1 and downloading PBSetup from there.



Once PBSetup is installed press the Add Game button and select Bad Company 2 as a game. Then click browse and select the location your game is installed to. The location of your installation can vary depending upon whether you have the Steam version, store-bought version or the EA downloader version. For the store-bought version the game is likely installed in C:/Program Files. For steam it will be in C:/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/battlefield bad company 2/.



Set the location and press Add Game and you should now see the game listed within PBSetup along with versions of PB listed under the client version and server version columns.



Press the Check for Updates button and wait for it to finish and you should now be able to play.

[Subzero]

Thanks for clarifying that. Unfortunately all BC2 hosts worldwide are not allowed to set new servers up at the moment as Dice has not permitted this. You may read the official post on this here:

http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/battlefield-bad-company-2-pc/933736-ranked-server-host-new-clan-rental-servers.html



In short, the master servers are currently too overloaded to handle any more servers so they have asked that all hosts stop setting up new orders

[Subzero]

I keep getting kicked off of servers and I see messages about INIT FAILURE or technical errors about pbcl.dll or pbag.dll, or messages about DISTRESS or Update timeout ... what is wrong?

These problems are almost always caused when your PunkBuster can't keep itself updated for some reason. Sometimes they are caused when the server you are trying to play on is running an old version of PunkBuster. If this problem happens only on one or a few PB Servers, then the cause is likely that those servers are outdated; in that case, you should avoid those servers. If this happens to you on every PB server you try to play on, then please click here for help on getting your PunkBuster updated.

[Hornet]

Thanks for the info Billy, nice :)

[Subzero]

We have received permission from Dice to disable Punkbuster on any ranked servers if it is causing issues. If you are experiencing the PB related kicks or connection issues when trying to connect to your server and would like PB turned off please let us know. In addition, if your server has already had PB turned off and ranking was turned off also we are now allowed to make your server ranked without Punkbuster enabled.

[28th|MB|]-[ats*]

Excellent Game support from DICE :PDT_Armataz_01_34[1
Finley a game developer with respect for the PC games and overall games out there.:001_wub:

[Subzero]

An update for Bad Company 2 servers has been released and we have applied this overnight. The update is supposed to fix the PB INIT disconnection issues caused by Punkbuster and as such Punkbuster has been re-enabled on all servers. If you experience any PB related issues please let us know. As far as we know there are still many other issues relating to server crashes, client crashes and server browser issues to name a few which Dice are aware of and are in the process of fixing.

For those waiting for new servers to be setup, there is unfortunately still a hold on this put in place by Dice to prevent overloading the master servers. Dice expects the master server problem to be fixed by the end of the week and any outstanding requests for new servers will be carried out as soon as we get the go-ahead

[Houli]

Thanks for the update Billy

[Subzero]

We have been asked if we will prepend all of our server names with “AU” by some members of the Bad Company 2 community. We this this is a fantastic idea given it is extremely hard to find Aussie servers and so we have gone ahead and done this. Some of the other providers will be doing the same so it should make it a lot easier to find servers in game by searching for AU under the filters.



To apply the AU tag simply restart your server when you are ready and it will be added automatically.

.



To apply the AU tag simply restart your server when you are ready and it will be added automatically.

[oldfart]

Need some help in finding our server..

Should I be looking at the servers that load up when the game is started ?? I found it at the beginning but not seen it since :bawling[1]:

Is there a different way to find it ??? Remember I am Techno challenged ..:PDT_Armataz_01_19[1..

Most servers I can join have massive ping around 300 - 400 .(not good for my ego LOL:cry[1]:). It would be great to see how I go on a low ping server ...

[Wabli]

I agree Bren I havent seen it much either yesterday i joined through Zav as a frind then EA went down and I've lost all my friends :bawling[1]:

[oldfart]

I agree Bren I havent seen it much either yesterday i joined through Zav as a frind then EA went down and I've lost all my friends :bawling[1]:

Yes just noticed that I also have lost all the friends... For hell sake why do these shitters do things the way they do ?? bring back the good old days where we had more control..:FIREdevil[1]:

[M3DIC]

If you wait the long time to populate the servers (takes forever), then sort by name and then scroll down till you see the MB server (28th MB .........)

You can also add it to your favs and it will automatically go in to the history.

[zavrix]

Yes just noticed that I also have lost all the friends... For hell sake why do these shitters do things the way they do ?? bring back the good old days where we had more control..:FIREdevil[1]:

Hang in their Old,

"Other titles ran at GameSpy stats backend, this is the first BF PC title to run at EA for everything. So it is a learning process for the EA Online teams on what kind of demand you guys can generate on their hardware."

EA are working on these issues and will hopefully get it sorted asap, at least these guys from DICE are responding to the players questions about the issues.

[Subzero]

We are aware of lag issues affecting all customers on one of our server systems. If you have received this email you have one or more game servers on this machine.



These issues affect the following IP addresses:

202.60.82.40
202.60.82.41

202.60.82.42

202.60.82.43

202.60.82.44

202.60.82.45



We have looked into the problems but unfortunately have not been able to find the cause as yet as everything appears normal. As such we will be taking the affected machine down immediately for an emergency reboot within the next 5 minutes. If this does not resolve the problems we are also exploring other potential causes to try and get this resolved as soon as possible.



We apologise for any inconvenience caused. If anyone can provide any more information which they feel may help us fix this please contact us as soon as possible.

[Subzero]

Unfortunately we have been unable to identify the cause of the lag issues on the machine your BC2 server is currently hosted on but are still looking in to this. I am not sure whether we will be able to resolve this within the next 24 hours so if you wish for us to move your server to a different machine let us know and we will organise this as soon as possible. We have a freshly installed empty system ready to go which we can move you to so I would highly advise taking this option. Moving your server will involve a change of IP address.

[zavrix]

Posted on EA today

We have had a lot of questions about Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on all platforms about the issues some have had. Here we will answer some of the more common questions, some will help you get in game, others will give an insight to what we are working on.

This Q&A isn't a definitive list by any means and we are aware of and are working on more than these issues:

Connection issues to EA servers

EA Online has been adding more capacity to handle the high number of player connections to EA servers. This is an ongoing process but we currently have enough capacity to handle all BFBC2 connections.

Manually install PunkBuster on PC

If you are getting an error that Punkbuster hasn't installed correctly for reasons such as Windows admin permissions not allowing Punkbuster to be installed, then go to www.evenbalance.com and download PBSetup.exe. When prompted, point PBSetup at your BFBC2 install directory and then check for updates. A PC restart maybe needed once this is done for Windows to pick up Punkbusters location.


PunkBuster kicks with the following error message : « punkbuster kicked player 'PLAYER NAME' (for 0 minutes) ... RESTRICTION: Service Communication. »

This is a Windows Vista/Windows 7 permissions issue that affects all Punkbuster games. To solve this issue download and run PBSVC from http://www.evenbalance.com/downloads/pbsvc/pbsvc.exe

When clicking on a server to join, nothing happens.

This is fixed in a patch going out on PC today.

Server Browser bugged: All the following browser issues are things the team is currently working on improving.

Too slow This is caused by the current browser system. - A new system is being developed by the BFBC2 PC team to improve the server browser

Displaying inaccurate number of players connected on game servers - This is caused by the difference in server status between when the refresh was initiated and when the results display.

No ping displayed - This is caused by Windows admin privileges. To view ping in the server browser run BFBC2.exe with administrator privileges.

High pings even on local game servers. We're actually showing game latency instead of ping.

This is basically how far behind the client is compared to the server. We try to keep the server a small portion in front of the clients so they in most cases can use replicated data until they get the next ghost update from the server. If they get a lag spike they will start predicting the state when they run out of information, however, the basic idea is to smooth out the experience compared to everything having to be corrected when the predictions are slightly off.


After being disconnected, some people got their stats temporary reset.

The team is investigating this issue, we have no solution at this point. Please report any stat loss here: http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/battlefield-bad-company-2-pc/961412-do-you-get-missing-stats.html

When people try to reconnect to their profile, the game asks for the serial number again

This has been fixed on the entitlement side hence no patch is needed. A really small number of people got affected by this.

360 accounts will be “reset” this weekend?

This is a rumour


Some players have had trouble redeeming their VIP codes

This should have cleared up now, the in game store on PS3 for Europe and Asia is coming soon.

[Subzero]

Please be advised that we are currently experiencing hardware issues with one of our machines. The affected IPs are:



202.60.82.40

202.60.82.41

202.60.82.42

202.60.82.43

202.60.82.44

202.60.82.45

202.60.82.46

202.60.82.47



We will be looking to get this machine replaced/repaired tomorrow and due to the severity of the problem have elected to leave all servers offline this evening as we believe the hard drive is about to fail.


As an apology for these issues, a 3 day credit will be applied to all customers on the machine and we will update you when we have more information on this.

[Subzero]

Further to the previous email regarding hardware issues on 202.60.82.*. We will be moving all BC2 customers to another machine within the next hour. Once your server has been moved we will send out an email with the new IP and port for RCON purposes. Any saved favourites in game will remain the same as these are not based on server IP address

[oldfart]

COULD THAT BE WHY MY PING HAS GONE THROUGH THE ROOF LAST COUPLE OF DAYS ???:PDT_Armataz_01_34[1

[Subzero]

Dice have advised that EA will be performing a restart on their master servers at 7pm AEDT (Sydney time) tonight. This will likely result in a loss of connection to your server at this time.



For the official Twitter post on this please see here:

http://twitter.com/OfficialBFBC2/status/11067808405

[Hornet]

This must be why I cant connect :(

[Hornet]

EA is back on line!

[Subzero]

Please be advised that a Battlefield Bad Company 2 update will be applied to all servers this evening between 5pm and 5.30pm Sydney time. During this time your server will go down for the update and will become inaccessible from the control panel while we update the server files. Please note that this update is mandatory and you will be required to patch your game client at the time of the update as it is not backwards compatible.



The new update includes a region setting on the server as well as a new server browser where you may select Oceania as your server region in the browser filters. As such you may remove the AU prefix from your server name under the Server Settings page if you wish to. In addition, the new update enforces Punkbuster on for ranked servers and passwords off for ranked servers so those who have been running with Punkbuster off will no longer be able to do so.

[Subzero]

Please be advised that we have just rolled out today’s R11 update of the server files. Please see below for the changes:



http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/bc2-pc-service-update/1056211-r11-servers-being-deployed.html



There have been some reports of lag particularly when spawning in R10 and R11. If you experience this it may be your virus scanner. Please try disabling the virus scanner or preferably add an exception for your My Documents/BFBC2 folder to your virus program. We will be interested to see if anyone having these issues can resolve them using this method so please let us know if you do.

[Subzero]

Please be advised that there are currently major issues with the Bad Company 2 master servers.



Last night several US hosts reported problems with servers crashing and not starting up again and we are now seeing similar issues with our servers. Until these issues are resolved over at EA you may experience server crashes displaying the continuously crashing symbol or the not responding symbol in the web control panel. If you do experience problems please try leaving your server off in the control panel for 15-30 minutes before starting it again. We are finding that this seems to help as it gives the master servers time to forget your server before it is re-added to the master server list the next time you start it.



We apologise for any inconvenience but unfortunately these issues are out of our control.

[Markallen3]

i suggest if you want to recruit people you get a server that doesn't crash all the time it did it to me 2x tonight and just when people started to come on

[pipe]

give us a couple of weeks markallen, we will be bigger than god..

[Markallen3]

that still didn't answer that fact the server crashes if you want to be bigger than god then fix that problem it scares people away