Punkbuster Error: MD5Tool Mismatch Troubleshooting

[Nick The Bubble]

In my pr the shaders are in zipped folders, and I can't find the contents anywhere? Might this be the problem? Should I extract them to somewhere? The only problem is that when I tried to do that it said access denied (winrar)

[[R-DEV]Spearhead]

I'm looking into the problems some people have with the new punkbuster checks and I have read the whole thread. First of all thanks to kilroy and arn for the help they have provided here.

I agree with arn that the problem is not related to the mod but to the local machines it is played on and possibly sometimes but seldomly it may be caused by the servers or maybe even communication trouble.

The two most useful posts to take a look at would be:

A step-by-step guide to solving the trouble by kilroy

and

A list of information vital for helping players who still have trouble with PB by arn

I think if I order the suspected causes of trouble from most frequently to most seldom I'd check out the reason for your trouble in the following order:

1. Do you start PR with the PR.exe (not the BF2.exe and also not an external program like X-Fire)?
2. Does the shaders_client.zip file in the mods/bf2 directory really get replaced by the one in the mods/pr directory? You may simply try to backup the file in mods/bf2 and then overwrite it with a copy of the one in mods/pr to test if the trouble goes away then
3. Does BF2 still use the old shaders in the cache? Delete the shader cache or change the graphics settings to induce a rebuilding of the shaders.
4. If it's another file than the shaders that PB complains about: Is the file REALLY ok? Best do your own MD5 check with the MD5 tool and compare it with a friend or someone on the forums. Several people get this problem even with a fresh install and it can be solved by copying the file from someone with a working version.
5. Is the problem just happening on one or 2 servers? Maybe they have a wrong check active there (Not too likely if many players play there but check out some more servers)
6. If it's a different file most times that PB complains it is likely that the file is not corrupt but the PC is having trouble (most likely with the memory) and is not running 100% stable.

That's my suggested order in trying to solve the problem. In my eyes a reinstall should not be necessary for most people.

I wonder why the servers check for unused vBF2 files at all but I guess the admins use some generic template for the checks which also contains them. Maybe we will communicate with them to remove any unneeded checks, but the actual problem is usually that the local file is corrupted. (This also happened to me after installing BF2 and that was long before I even started playing any mods)

I'll talk about this problem with some other devs and see if we find a good way to streamline the process for people to get help.

[TOME Malambri]

Originally Posted by [R-DEV]Spearhead

I'm looking into the problems some people have with the new punkbuster checks and I have read the whole thread. First of all thanks to kilroy and arn for the help they have provided here.

I agree with arn that the problem is not related to the mod but to the local machines it is played on and possibly sometimes but seldomly it may be caused by the servers or maybe even communication trouble.

The two most useful posts to take a look at would be:

A step-by-step guide to solving the trouble by kilroy

and

A list of information vital for helping players who still have trouble with PB by arn

I think if I order the suspected causes of trouble from most frequently to most seldom I'd check out the reason for your trouble in the following order:

1. Do you start PR with the PR.exe (not the BF2.exe and also not an external program like X-Fire)?
2. Does the shaders_client.zip file in the mods/bf2 directory really get replaced by the one in the mods/pr directory? You may simply try to backup the file in mods/bf2 and then overwrite it with a copy of the one in mods/pr to test if the trouble goes away then
3. Does BF2 still use the old shaders in the cache? Delete the shader cache or change the graphics settings to induce a rebuilding of the shaders.
4. If it's another file than the shaders that PB complains about: Is the file REALLY ok? Best do your own MD5 check with the MD5 tool and compare it with a friend or someone on the forums. Several people get this problem even with a fresh install and it can be solved by copying the file from someone with a working version.
5. Is the problem just happening on one or 2 servers? Maybe they have a wrong check active there (Not too likely if many players play there but check out some more servers)
6. If it's a different file most times that PB complains it is likely that the file is not corrupt but the PC is having trouble (most likely with the memory) and is not running 100% stable.

That's my suggested order in trying to solve the problem. In my eyes a reinstall should not be necessary for most people.

I wonder why the servers check for unused vBF2 files at all but I guess the admins use some generic template for the checks which also contains them. Maybe we will communicate with them to remove any unneeded checks, but the actual problem is usually that the local file is corrupted. (This also happened to me after installing BF2 and that was long before I even started playing any mods)

I'll talk about this problem with some other devs and see if we find a good way to streamline the process for people to get help.

I have tried all of these things repeatedly. Hours upon hours, and honestly I can't fix it. Just instant error message when I join a server. Guess I am done with PR by default.

but hey at least the suppression system is totally awesome and worth all this trouble.

[squall6677]

i agree with the checks and i am WAY ahead of those, another thought that just crossed my mind today. what IF its the connection? example:

Punkbuster asks to look at Shader Client.zip
Your PC uploads to Punkbuster and internet connection gets a little break up
1 packet is lost and doesn't match the Punkbuster Global File.
MD5 Shader Client.zip kick len=(204

would that be the issue for this? and YES IT IS UNSOLVABLE!!!! unless of course you pay throught the nose for a better connection (not happening!)

[wood702]

Wow, dont I feel stupid!! Not one person has told me if they tried getting into PR the way that I suggested! You all tried starting up vanilla bf2 then just going to your favorites and clicking on a PR server? It works great for me!! ALL the other ways I still get the shaders warning, so there has to be something different about starting it my way. Please try and let me know if it worked for you. Maybe that will help the devs figure it out. PLEASE respond!!

[[R-DEV]Spearhead]

@wood702: If you get the shader warning screen on startup it is because the bik video file with it is not being renamed. If you manually delete the file it will also not display the warning but if the warning screen pops up it's a good sign that also the replacing of the vBF2 shaders with the PR ones did not succeed. In your case you cirumvented both by replacing the vBF2 shaders yourself and by starting up via vBF2 which circumvents all intro videos. You are actually making yourself unnecessary work this way.

If you simply overwrite the vBF2 shaders with the PR shaders like I did recommend you simply need to rename the warning.bik file and it will start up like intended. The whole thing about your warning video showing up means that your OS (probably vista) is blocking our exe from doing the needed file renaming and copying. Someone here on the forums should be able to tell you how to make vista allow the pr.exe to do it's work. (I don't use vista myself)

[arn354]

Your PC uploads to Punkbuster and internet connection gets a little break up
1 packet is lost and doesn't match the Punkbuster Global File.
MD5 Shader Client.zip kick len=(2048 )

No - not possible.
If one or the packet is lost the check is considered failed - no kick at all.
If all (or several) md5querries fail or are lost you get another error-message: Ignoring MD5querries .

[davemccr]

I've tried all the suggestions, I've even done 2 clean installs of BF2 and then PR.756 from new PR downloads. I'm not too sure what is going on with it. I've even run Antivirus and other cleaners thinking it may have been that. It all worked fine 2 weeks ago, then I loaded in last Thursday and it didn't work, Shaders error... I've reinstalled twice now, tried not installing PB from the default BF2 install the first time... and updated it manually. Still no luck.

I generally last 2 minutes in Tactical gamer before getting booted, Tcombat is between 5 minutes and 30 minutes before getting booted.

I'm willing to try just about anything now. Arn, want to try a remote session? Maybe I put something in the wrong place?

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

Oh and yes, I am loading in from the PR.exe, I've also tried the login to BF2 and then switch over (with limited 30min at Tcombat success :S)


Thanks a million,
Dave

[wood702]

Originally Posted by [R-DEV]Spearhead

@wood702: If you get the shader warning screen on startup it is because the bik video file with it is not being renamed. If you manually delete the file it will also not display the warning but if the warning screen pops up it's a good sign that also the replacing of the vBF2 shaders with the PR ones did not succeed. In your case you cirumvented both by replacing the vBF2 shaders yourself and by starting up via vBF2 which circumvents all intro videos. You are actually making yourself unnecessary work this way.

If you simply overwrite the vBF2 shaders with the PR shaders like I did recommend you simply need to rename the warning.bik file and it will start up like intended. The whole thing about your warning video showing up means that your OS (probably vista) is blocking our exe from doing the needed file renaming and copying. Someone here on the forums should be able to tell you how to make vista allow the pr.exe to do it's work. (I don't use vista myself)

When talking with jaymz, he did have me rename the warning file, he also had me delete another file that had a funny name with numbers and letters. Yes the system I was on was vista, and I am glad I dont have it either. What a pain!! So I dont really know how to talk back to you in computer language so I wont even try and sound like I know something u dont, all I know is the kid can play PR now and I dont have to deal with it anymore, cause im not there. Sorry I couldnt help guys

[kilroy0097]

Ok an update for me. I did a memtest86 with my memory. I had 4 DDR sticks 512mb each for a total of 2GB of RAM. There was an error on one of the four sticks. So I started doing a memtest86 at least 2 complete passes on each of the memory sticks. I found that NONE of the memory sticks had any errors after 2 to 3 passes each. So I believe that one of my DIMM slots on the motherboard itself is busted. I ordered two 1GB sticks of DDR400 memory and got them in yesterday. I have fully tested with memtest86 and my two primary slots are good to go and so are the sticks. Full dual memory 2GB without error.

Now I'm in the processes of doing a full format and reinstall. So I am going to have completely new OS and Drivers and installed programs.

I am going to redo the MD5 Hash creation of the files after I install to insure they are correctly installed.

If my MD5 kicks continue I'm going to have to give up finally and for good after I send all my error reports, MD5 Hash and dxdiag information to the necessary folks. Simply put if it doesn't work correctly after all this... I'm sorry folks but I'm going to have to put the blame squarely on this new PB update and say it's in their hands now. I think I've done more than beyond anything and everything I can for this series of errors since the update.

Wish me luck!

P.S. And yes wood702 I will give your solution a try if I the curse of PB comes back. Then no one can say I haven't given everything and I do mean EVERYTHING a try.