PunkBuster Kicking (Without Stating A Reason) [Possible Fix]

Just now, I was having a blast playing Battlefield: Hardline [a First Impressions of the Retail Release of Battlefield: Hardline, "Coming Soon™"!] , until that is, out of nowhere PunkBuster decided to start kicking me from games - without stating a reason why... The message that came up at the bottom of Battlelog simply said:

Error.

Game disconnected: you were kicked by PunkBuster. Stated reason: PunkBuster kicked player (for 

That's it, just "for....", but then nothing is shown after that word. The browser used was Maximized at 1080p resolution, so it should have had enough room to display any additional text. Here is a screenshot of the error message that was seen:

It seems it had room - but it wasn't saying fully why it kicked me - time to start Troubleshooting!


Things attempted, to fix this issue:

- Downloaded PunkBuster from developer website and installed
- Disabled Anti-Virus [I was running Windows Defender at the time of this writing]
- Ran PunkBuster from a different location (an older version I had, which updated itself then updated the games)
- Uninstalled PunkBuster and Reinstalled PunkBuster via the download in attempt (1)
- Uninstalled PunkBuster and Reinstalled PunkBuster via the location at <game installation directory>

That's it! That last step did it. Here's where the installer I used was found [I was using a folder that is different from the Default Installation Directory for Hardline, but it was still found within the game installation directory itself]:

Location of the PunkBuster Service installer that I used to reinstall PB. Click to see Full Size

By the way, there is a redistributable installer in a subdirectory of the game (there is one for most games that utilize PunkBuster), here is the location for my installation of Battlefield: Hardline:

Location of a redistributable version of the PunkBuster Service installer package.
This version is present for many games that utilize PunkBuster.
Click to see Full Size

Now I can get back into Hardline without it kicking me after a few seconds - woot. Hopefully, this will work for you too, my friend.


See You In The Game!