Have you tried completely uninstalling and then reinstalling PunkBuster? Be sure to follow these instructions EXACTLY. People in the past have skipped parts and have failed to fix their problem.
1. Make sure that you either disable your firewall (probably not a good idea) or allow PnkBstrA.exe and PnkBstrB.exe access to do things (McAfee has been known to automatically add these services to the block list).
2. Download
pbsvc.exe, which is a utility to uninstall and reinstall PunkBuster.
3. Open pbsvc.exe and select
Un-Install/Remove PunkBuster Service.
4. Open pbsvc.exe again and this time select Install/Re-Install PunkBuster Service.
5. After installing, it will test your services. Make sure you get a "
Test completed successfully without error." message. If not, then copy and paste the results of the test here.
6. Now download
PBSETUP, which is a utility to update PunkBuster to the latest version. For Windows:
pbsetup.exe7. Open pbsetup.exe. It will probably have to check for updates, allow it to do that.
8. Click the "
Add a Game" button at the top.
9. Select your game (in this case Battlefield 2142) and make sure that the directory is correct.
10. Click the "
Check for Updates" button at the top.