OK, looks like I figured it out. On the advice of one of the many postings on the Steam forums, I had uninstalled PB and made the wildly idiotic assumption that taking EA's advice to download and run the latest "PBSetup" program would actually, you know, install and set up PB again. Silly me.

I tried searching my system for "PnkBstrA.exe" and I couldn't find the file. Lo and behold, "PunkBuster Services" was also no longer listed in the uninstallable programs in Control Panel. Turns out the actual PB installer is a different program from PBSetup, and of course the only dl link for it is buried in the blatantly obvious "PB Services FAQ" page.

So, it's reinstalled, reupdated and I was able to connect and stay on the server for all of 10 seconds before I got called away to dinner.


MD, I'll try again in a bit now that you've applied that latest patch, thanks bro.

Edit: Got it working. As Eddie Murphy says in "Trading Places" when he discovers he has legs and can see..."Oh, happy day!"