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[Deleted member 1235]

I got the banning and tried to sift through many many posts and mad rumour posts on X-S.

Here is what I am 90 percent sure is being done now.

1. Microsoft is tying eeprom to HDD serial number. so when you log onto live, eeprom is then linked with a HDD. If EITHER changes, and they don't match from then on then it means modded and you are banned again. a new eeprom WILL unban you for about 24 hours.

I think gamertag is irrellevant. I have got a new xbox (unmodded) and my actuall account is still fine. I am going to try it on my flatmates modded (but still not banned) xbox if he lets me. I don't think they are flaggin gamer tags for closer inspection or anything like that.

That also means that if you get banned, the fix is a new HDD AND a new eeprom, and that eeprom must have never ever contacted live previously.

I could have got a new HDD but I just went for another crystal xbox instead.

 

[Wario64]

I guess I have nothing to worry about if it's just HDD and EEPROM. Though I wished I knew about this earlier cause I wanted to swap a new HDD. Oh well, as long as I can play Halo 2 online next week...

Did you change your EEPROM before or something?

 

[jedimike]

Well, I haven't got hit yet. I'm screwed though because I have a 120GB hard drive. I removed my mod chip, but couldn't get the original drive to work. So now I have an unmodded Xbox with a huge hard drive. If they hit me, I'll just put the chip back in and go get a new Xbox.

 

[The Shadow]

I guess I have nothing to worry about if it's just HDD and EEPROM. Though I wished I knew about this earlier cause I wanted to swap a new HDD. Oh well, as long as I can play Halo 2 online next week...

Did you change your EEPROM before or something?

Have you logged on since "B-Day" Oct. 16? if not, you could probably still swap the HDD. Apparently they started tying EEPROM and HDD after that date.

 

[Wario64]

I think I connected via dash board but I don't remember. It's not such a big deal though, I can live with what I have

 

[Hellraizah]

All this talk sounds like somebody who slept with a girl that is HIV positive.

"Dude, you slept with her, she got AIDS, did you put a condom ?"

"Nah I didn't, but I wiped my penis clean the day after, I think I'll be safe."

 

[Deleted member 1235]

Okay, you DO NOT need to worry if you have never been banned before and you have a switch that turns your mod chip off. AT ALL I have personally watched someone with all manner of apps under the sun installed and a 120 gig HDD log on and off live a whole bunch of times since b-day. Oct 16th. Here is where you have to worry.

IF you have logged on to live after OCT 16th, your eeprom and your HDD serial number are tied together forever. If you ever get banned from now on by accidently leaving your modchip on, your HDD and your eeprom are banned. That is what gets banned. those 2 things, and because they are tied, they will be checked against each other if you replace 1.

If you were banned before this date (a long time before to be safe) you may be ok. My flatmate was banned and unbanned himself with new eeprom 6 months previous to all this business and he is logging on and off live fine now.

Don't do anything drastic like removing your modchip etc if you have never been banned. Just take care with the switch, Like I didn't

 

[JayFro]

I've been fine, just got done playing on live for about 3 hours and had zero problems.

 

[Kon Tiki]

All this talk sounds like somebody who slept with a girl that is HIV positive.

"Dude, you slept with her, she got AIDS, did you put a condom ?"

"Nah I didn't, but I wiped my penis clean the day after, I think I'll be safe."

XBL is like AIDS.

 

[tenchir]

Is there any point in "locking" your HDD?

 

[Deleted member 1235]

Is there any point in "locking" your HDD?

Yes, new HDD must be locked before going on live. otherwise banning.

 

[Wario64]

Your HDD has to be locked to go on Xbox Live or something. Unlocked + Xbox Live = no no


I'm glad my chip doesn't have a switch for Xbox Live. Xenium boots up to a menu when you power it up and you choose which bios to load. Practically idiot proof

 

[Seth C]

If you got the rights for the video, it's that you bought the VHS or DVD, and please, you all know that the videos you listen to are downloaded and thus, illegal, since it's copyrighted material you didn't pay for. If you DO have the DVD in hand, though, why don't you just listen to it normally instead of going from your PC to the Xbox ?

There are tons of reasons. Are you going to tell me it is illegal to record televion shows to "time shift" them? Don't bother, because courts in the US have sided in favor of the user, not the corporations. So, I work nights. I record Divx files of my favorite shows on my PC (can't watch them live, not home). I then watch them on my modded Xbox. Why? I have a 51" TV, and the Xbox upsamples video to 1080i. Even smallish (400 meg) Divx files look great upsampled. I can upsample DVDs I own as well, and they (obviously) look fantastic.

And emulation isn't legal. It doesn't become legal because the game has been out for X couple of years. Once again, for emulation to be legal, you have to own the rights for the games, and if you do (means that you have bought and own these games), why don't you play them directly on the console they were meant to be played ??

Convenience. I have hundreds of games (500-600) games for NES, Super NES, Master System, Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, and Turbo Grafx/Duo. I don't want to bring all of those games out one at a time as I play them. I also don't have those systems hooked up to the big screen TV in the living room. It's nice to be able to go in to the menu and just load up the game. Also, it allows me to play all of my Gameboy games on a TV, instead of being blinded by the tiny screen. And again, just as with the videos, I can upsample all of my games to 480p or 1080i if I choose.

 

[Takuan]

Information from a large thread at Xbox-Scene.com:

Things that will make you banned
- Playing with any hacked (or just non retail) bios
- Changed structure of M$ dashboard files (for example any exploits)
- Playing games of the HDD (by using any exploit)
- Using game hacks (for example in Project Gotham Racing 2)

-----------------------------------------------------

Things that will NOT make you banned
- Modchip on LPC
- TSOP flash with TSOP split (as long as you use retail bios on XBL)
- Changed hard drive (no problem at all)
- Upgraded RAM
- Gamesaves from all regions (NTSC saves on PAL console are not any problem)
- evoxdash.xbe and/or all the homebrew software on C or E partition - there is no hdd content scanning!

-----------------------------------------------------

Things that will most probably won't make you banned
- Playing and possesing THAT game
- Playing THAT game and other games on XBC/Xlink etc.
- changing the HDD after signing to XBL

-------

Things that are unclear:
- If gamer tag is flagged once you've been banned
- Any other method to ban those who've been previously banned?

-----------------------------------------------------

And so on:

Modded xbox using XBL, never been banned:
You have no worries, as long as you're not logging to XBL with chip on.

Modded xbox not on XBL but thinking of signing up:
You have no worries. No problems at all. Just follow the first instruction.

Modded xbox on XBL, previously banned:
You'll have to change your hdd & eeprom for sure. You may also have to change your gamer tag. This is unclear.

-----------------------------------------------------

Keep in mind that it is not 200% sure info!! It worked for few of us and it did not for some others. But I actually blame EEPROM resellers (same EEPROM used in few consoles) for these bans after changing the HDD. We appreciate your input into the research.

 

[op_ivy]

i should be a decent test as i was banned towards the end of sept... i have a new eeprom, just havent tried it yet... a bit scared

 

[Takuan]

New EEPROM won't do it. You need at least a new HD to go with it and possibly a new gamertag. I've been wanting to test out XBL myself but no one will play ESPN NBA2K5 with me.

 

[Fixed2BeBroken]

I just mean that it would be nice if they would let people be..

i felt that way about the poor immagrant folks selling the games that no one really gives a shit about anymore in the malls.

but alas......"stealing is ok as long as you dont sell what you steal."

 

[Norse]

http://www.xbox.com/en-us/hardware/xboxmediacenterextender.htm?level1=enusnewsletter&level2=icydkblurb1&level3=xboxmediacenterextender


legal xbmc from MS soon? Is it for media center pc's only? or can xp users use this with the xbox? Didnt read it all yet...but does some of the stuff xbmc does.....if MS was smart, they would buy xbmc and sell it in legit form without gimping it.

 

[Kon Tiki]

http://www.xbox.com/en-us/hardware/xboxmediacenterextender.htm?level1=enusnewsletter&level2=icydkblurb1&level3=xboxmediacenterextender


legal xbmc from MS soon? Is it for media center pc's only? or can xp users use this with the xbox? Didnt read it all yet...but does some of the stuff xbmc does.....if MS was smart, they would buy xbmc and sell it in legit form without gimping it.

XMBC IS WindowsMEdia Centre. Modders released an MS product for them. As for XP, I heard there would be a 'patch' for a fee.

 

[op_ivy]

New EEPROM won't do it. You need at least a new HD to go with it and possibly a new gamertag. I've been wanting to test out XBL myself but no one will play ESPN NBA2K5 with me.

i thought the general consensus was that only if you've been banned since oct 16th or so, a new eeprom wont cut it for getting back onto live... if i was banned a few weeks prior to this date, i should be ok. at least thats my understanding...

 

[Takuan]

i thought the general consensus was that only if you've been banned since oct 16th or so, a new eeprom wont cut it for getting back onto live... if i was banned a few weeks prior to this date, i should be ok. at least thats my understanding...

Here's a post by someone who was previously banned long before October 16:

I am one of the people who was banned a long time ago. Over a year ago, installed a new eeprom and everything was fine until the 16th of last month.
The day a lot of people were banned. A few days later, I upgrated my Xbox with a new hdd and a new eeprom. But I created a new account and new gamertag.
Everything worked fine for a over a week. So we (we meaning some people in these boards and I) thought this was the fix since everything was fine.
At this point I decided to connect my new upgraded Xbox to my old GT.
And what do you know? I'm banned a day later.....

 

[border]

Just out of curiousity, why don't they ban people based around some unique ID number on a hardware component that CANNOT be easily swapped out? Like the ethernet adapter's MAC address, perhaps?

Not that it would make anybody happy, but it would be a bit more efficient.

 

[thorns]

MAC address can easily be changed.. Even within your dashboard!

However next gen chips will most likely will have hard coded security functions within the silicon, making them pretty much uncrackable (as in wide spread piracy, probably one time hacks will be somewhat possible). Modchips will most likely be a thing of the past.

 

[border]

I'm pretty sure that anything that doesn't have to be connected to the internet for serial/ID verification will be cracked.

Piracy was supposed to be a "thing of the past" with Xbox. What was it they were bragging about? Military-grade encryption? I hope that was a lie, 'cause if not then our military is fucked!

 

[Yusaku]

http://www.xbox.com/en-us/hardware/xboxmediacenterextender.htm?level1=enusnewsletter&level2=icydkblurb1&level3=xboxmediacenterextender


legal xbmc from MS soon? Is it for media center pc's only? or can xp users use this with the xbox? Didnt read it all yet...but does some of the stuff xbmc does.....if MS was smart, they would buy xbmc and sell it in legit form without gimping it.

That thing is a joke. $80, requires a PC with Windows Media Center, and will almost certainly not support codecs like divx and xvid.

EDIT: Looking at it, it just looks like a remote/TV interface for Windows Media Center (hence the name). I'm guessing when you schedule a recording you're just telling your WMC computer to record it, because it's not like the Xbox has the HD space for that.

 

[Jesiatha]

That thing is a joke. $80, requires a PC with Windows Media Center, and will almost certainly not support codecs like divx and xvid.

EDIT: Looking at it, it just looks like a remote/TV interface for Windows Media Center (hence the name). I'm guessing when you schedule a recording you're just telling your WMC computer to record it, because it's not like the Xbox has the HD space for that.

That's exactly it - sort of a much nicer terminal server for Windows Media Center. Which does support whatever codecs you want (anything that can be played in Windows Media Player) but records TV only to dvr-ms (a wrapped version of MPEG2). Barring the extremely high cost of the setup (needing a Media Center PC, plus the Xbox extender), it is extremely cool - essentially you get a second DVR with a bunch of other features for very cheap.

 

[PhatSaqs]

What happens when you're banned and you try to connect to XBL?

 

[op_ivy]

What happens when you're banned and you try to connect to XBL?

a message just pops up saying that you are unable to connect, your xbox has been modified or some such shit.


ok, so i got on just now, then got off again. if i'm to be banned again, is it pretty much instantaneous, or would it be in 24 hours?

 

[PhatSaqs]

a message just pops up saying that you are unable to connect, your xbox has been modified or some such shit.

Ah ok. Reason I asked is that for some reason my US XB cant get on XBL and it gives me a "DNS Server" error. My Asian box is fine and can get on no problem. I was thinking maybe they banned it by mistake or something. Could the card be bad or something?

 

[borghe]

no, it could take a few hours. my buddy changed out his eeprom and played all that night. it wasn't until the next day that he was banned.

if you have been banned recently (within the last month'ish), your will need AT LEAST a new eeprom and HDD. Your best bet is to just buy a new XBox, unless you have an HDD sitting around and have someone to give you an eeprom.

it seems that the logging started happening BEFORE Oct. 16th. My buddy was bammed and restored previous to Oct. 16th and he was rebanned under this new method.

Basically make SURE your are not hitting live with your mod enabled (soft or chip). make sure that if your mod IS enabled that your network is disconnected or else a Live Aware game will probably screw you.

This is really only bad for people who were previously banned. In most of their cases they might as well just buy a new XBox and have one hacked 24/7 and one completely legit.

 

[Nester]

A friend of mine was banned back in May, got a new EEPROM at that time and is not currently rebanned. He's been playing Rainbow Six 3:BA for the past couple nights to test it, and so far so good.

 

[op_ivy]

no, it could take a few hours. my buddy changed out his eeprom and played all that night. it wasn't until the next day that he was banned.

if you have been banned recently (within the last month'ish), your will need AT LEAST a new eeprom and HDD. Your best bet is to just buy a new XBox, unless you have an HDD sitting around and have someone to give you an eeprom.

it seems that the logging started happening BEFORE Oct. 16th. My buddy was bammed and restored previous to Oct. 16th and he was rebanned under this new method.

Basically make SURE your are not hitting live with your mod enabled (soft or chip). make sure that if your mod IS enabled that your network is disconnected or else a Live Aware game will probably screw you.

This is really only bad for people who were previously banned. In most of their cases they might as well just buy a new XBox and have one hacked 24/7 and one completely legit.

i was banned 9/28, so i'm fairly optimistic that i'll be ok.

*crosses fingers

 

[Wario64]

Basically make SURE your are not hitting live with your mod enabled (soft or chip). make sure that if your mod IS enabled that your network is disconnected or else a Live Aware game will probably screw you..

What about setting up a password for your Xbox Live account? Would that prevent the Xbox from making a connection with a Live Aware game?

I know that turning auto-sign in off and making a profile other than your gamertag are countermeasures to avoid having a game connect via Live Aware

 

[Lyte Edge]

What about setting up a password for your Xbox Live account? Would that prevent the Xbox from making a connection with a Live Aware game?

I know that turning auto-sign in off and making a profile other than your gamertag are countermeasures to avoid having a game connect via Live Aware

Do what I always do: Keep the ethernet cable unplugged AT ALL TIMES unless you're FTPing something to your system or playing on Live. I've only had one slip up where I accidentally signed in when the chip was on, and I was really glad the cable was unplugged.

 

[op_ivy]

i was banned 9/28, so i'm fairly optimistic that i'll be ok.

*crosses fingers

whelp... i guess the oct 16th date is NOT accurate. i played some doa u the other night, and sure enough, i am now again banned for no other reason then a previous banning...

xbox purchases +1

 

[aerofx]

whelp... i guess the oct 16th date is NOT accurate. i played some doa u the other night, and sure enough, i am now again banned for no other reason then a previous banning...

xbox purchases +1

ROOFLES!! BANNED!! Your cheatin' days are OVAAAAAR!!

 

[PanopticBlue]

whelp... i guess the oct 16th date is NOT accurate. i played some doa u the other night, and sure enough, i am now again banned for no other reason then a previous banning...

xbox purchases +1

*sigh* me too

I've been banned twice in the last month, and I have been extremely careful about switching my modchip off. Guess I've been blacklisted.

Anyway, I'm kinda broke but I just have to have xbox live for Halo 2. Is EB running any good trade-in deals? I guess I'll try to get a cheap used/refurb xbox before nov. 9th.

 

[op_ivy]

ROOFLES!! BANNED!! Your cheatin' days are OVAAAAAR!!

i almost slipped up and used the "f" word, fuck, that was close

 

[Dujour]

I have a switch-modded xbox and I bought live but haven't installed it yet. When Halo 2's released, do you recommend I play with that xbox or should I buy another just to play online? It'd be nice if the system weren't so huge.

 

[Wario64]

I think you're fine as long as you don't do something stupid (go on live with the chip on)

I've been playing some Outrun 2 for the last 2 days on Xbox Live and I'm not banned. But then again, this is the first game I've gone online ever on my Xbox. I have a Xenium Ice and a 120 gb hard drive if it makes any difference. 1.6 Xbox.

 

[Wario64]

http://www.smartxx.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=102

New Xbox Live Detetion found
Team SmartXX is proud to present
The new secret Xbox-live detetion code

Xbox Live is now checking each Xbox to see if the hard drive has been replaced. If your hard drive is any different than the one it came with, you will be banned, even if your new hard drive is locked.

This file is a disassembly of Xbox Live's security code as of today (March 6, 2004), and it shows that Microsoft is directing Xboxes to send their hard drives' identification back to Microsoft.

(c) Smartxx

If this is true, I'm fucked



nevermind, this seems like an old post. But apparantly a lot of people have been getting banned in the last 24 hours

 

[The Faceless Master]

Wario64, from what i understand, the HDD you have in when you first go onto LIVE is the one that they record as being "original"...

basically, the theory is they record the HDD's serial number and link it to your Xbox's eeprom data...

so as long as you keep that one, and don't get banned for trying to go on LIVE with a mod on, you should be OK...

 

[The Shadow]

I've been on Live! pre-mod but never banned. I played a couple hours last night and I just logged on and I'm still good.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Hmm, question about the locked HD, can you still ftp stuffs from your pc like movies and music to the xbox even if its locked? do i have to lock/unlock it anytime i go between live and unleashx?

Also, i have an xecuter II lite modchip, with latest bios as of maybe 3 or 4 weeks ago, is there an anti live detection in case you forgot to turn off the modchip? I remember reading about that as a feature for xecuter 3, i was wondering if they implemented that feature in the xecuter 2 bios.

 

[The Shadow]

I haven't had my HDD unlocked since the day I modded my Xbox.

There have been bios available for the Xecutor 2 that disable Live! for ages now. I use a hacked version of 4981 but I think 4980 was the first to have it.

 

[Wario64]

From xbox-scene.org

New Xbox LIVE Banning
>> 'It's Good To Play Together' ... but not anymore if you modded your Xbox.
From all the reports we get in our Xbox LIVE forum section it's clear Microsoft added new checks on their Xbox Live service.
Here's a quote from shanafan the X-S XLIVE forum moderator:

Ever since Xbox Live came out officially, people who accessed Xbox Live with their modchip on were banned. Live detected the modified BIOS that was loaded, and the Xbox's EEPROM (the unique identity of each Xbox) was banned. However, their Xbox Live account was still safe. So, these banned users got a different EEPROM from various sources, and they were back onto Xbox Live.
That has been the way for a long time, and was the way to get banned, unless you used a Xbox Live cheat or was a disruptive gamer.
However, until recently, it seems MS is taking extreme measures to stop people with modified Xboxes from accessing Xbox Live, even with their modchip off.

The Xbox Live Director of Programming already said a few weeks ago they were working on adding new 'security updates' to LIVE.
At this moment it's unknown what Microsoft is exactly checking when you log-in. There are many things they could check: HDD serial/model, HDD-EEprom match, crc check of xboxdash.xbe, search for specific files on HD (example c:/evoxdash.xbe), specific hacked or modified gamesaves, ...
While the banning does NOT appear to be game specific heinrich found the Halo2 .xbe is also checking kernel and HDD:
0x0041158C, "XboxHardwareInfo"
0x00411594, "XboxKrnlVersion"
0x00411770, "HalDiskSerialNumber"
0x00411774, "HalDiskModelNumber"
etc

It also seems (several days ago already) that many people who got banned previously and changed their EEprom to unban themselves are now banned again. This is probably because MS not bans an Xbox only based on the EEprom, but now probably also based on the HDD info. Team SmartXX proved some months ago MS was already sending HDD info to the LIVE servers during sign-in().
While waiting for more research to be done on these new checks, if you want to make sure you won't get banned best it is best to remove the xbox LIVE account from your modified Xbox console (save it on a memory card first so you can easily restore it).
If you still have your fully unchanged (no F, no homebrew files or modified gamesaves) retail Xbox HD - it *should* be safe to login with it and modchip off ofcourse. That's of course if you never connected to LIFE with your swapped HD 'cause MS might have detected it some weeks or months ago. It's not because they ban now that they only start tracking it now.

Right now it's doesn't seem all modded Xbox consoles are getting banned - but keep in mind they ban with a delay. So if you log-in on LIVE today it's possible you'll only get refused access tomorrow. It also looks like Microsoft only bans actual consoles and not gamertags.

If you want to play Halo 2 or other games against people around the world you can still use tunneling software like XLink Kai(info) and XBConnect(info) of course

More Information About New LIVE Checks: forums.xbox-scene.com (forums are VERY busy atm 'cause several sites are linking to it - so you may want to surf it off peak or tomorrow).