Gaming WARNING: Ban wave has started, STAY AWAY FROM LIVE!

[martin88]

Quick question: Are all the new Arcade models Lite Ons? Also, are they all Jaspers? I'm just asking because if I do get banned and I get a lite-on Arcade, I'm pretty much screwed... I have a ck3 Lite and no probe.

Also, I heard a rumor that apparently the newest Lite Ons cannot be flashed... anyone know anything about that?

Yes, pretty much every 360 comes with Lite-On drive now.

There are three (fw) version of Lite-On drive:
7 series: flashable with probe
8 series: flashable without probe
9 series: unflashable

Note that some unflashable 9 series have labels of 8 series.

If you want a moddable 360, check the manufacturing date before buying. Anything on or before July 2009 is good.

 

[PanzerWF]

If you got banned and you want to try and figure out why.. run some of your burned games through Nero DiscSpeed and go to quality check. You will be surprised what you let slip by as a good burn.

Since we're all paranoid about if ABGX is actually doing its job, this is a terrific idea. Although I'm not sure if I have DiscSpeed =/

 

[sjones900]

Yea I wouldn't doubt that Halo 3 got me banned.. it got a score of 47, usually good burns have a score of 90+

 

[olliepop2000]

It may have high errors but if they are still correctable by the drive wouldn't it be just like having a dirty lens or game disc?

 

[sjones900]

These are not correctable errors I'm seeing tho.. These are bad burns, here's a perfect example.

See that spike? That tells me something happened there during the burning process or there is a fault in that area on the disc.
This was burned on my old lg dvd burner though, I have a new computer and a new burner.

That was Fable 2 by the way, and this was installable to the hard drive if that matters to anyone.

 

[War]

So I just went online... no ban. Phew. Probably because I haven't played anything since this summer... Anyway, I'm not really sure what to do. My friend just got me a 3 month Gold sub, but I'm not sure if I should use it or not.

@martin: Well, that's the thing. I can't just go to WalMart and ask the guy "Hey, can you hand me one of those 360s? *checks manufacture date* Can I get a different one?" He'd be suspicious. And I can't just check them all myself because WalMart has them locked up behind a glass case. The clerk has to go up to it, unlock it, get a 360 out and hand it to me.

 

[sjones900]

So I just went online... no ban. Phew. Probably because I haven't played anything since this summer... Anyway, I'm not really sure what to do. My friend just got me a 3 month Gold sub, but I'm not sure if I should use it or not.

You should just hold on to it until this whole mess has simmered down.

 

[Dermy]

So I just went online... no ban. Phew. Probably because I haven't played anything since this summer... Anyway, I'm not really sure what to do. My friend just got me a 3 month Gold sub, but I'm not sure if I should use it or not.

@martin: Well, that's the thing. I can't just go to WalMart and ask the guy "Hey, can you hand me one of those 360s? *checks manufacture date* Can I get a different one?" He'd be suspicious. And I can't just check them all myself because WalMart has them locked up behind a glass case. The clerk has to go up to it, unlock it, get a 360 out and hand it to me.

You should be able to do that. I went on Thursday to 2 different walmarts looking moddable 360s. Just ask them to open the case and say you need to look at the numbers on the top of the boxes. If they ask why, say microsoft switches out the parts in the 360s every once and a while and you are trying to find the xbox with the best parts. Just keep asking to look at different ones until you find the manufacture date you want.

 

[War]

Hm... I guess that would be the most logical decision. Really sucks though, I was looking forward to playing L4D2 :<

@Red: I guess that sounds somewhat liable. Dunno if it would work for sure, though.

 

[Dermy]

@Red: I guess that sounds somewhat liable. Dunno if it would work for sure, though.

If it doesn't work the worst they could do is not let you see the 360. No big deal, head to a different store.
So you haven't played any burned games since august? I would keep it that way until the ban wave is over, like sjones900 said. Or at least until someone pinpoints the problem. Trust me, you don't want to blow $200 on a new 360 when it could have been avoided.

 

[air2004]

how about the we just say fuck live , and someone rewrite the menu like they did for the old xbox...cant that be done ? btw forza got me banned , but only my user name so I created a new account on my drive wonder what will happen

 

[War]

@Red: I guess that sounds somewhat liable. Dunno if it would work for sure, though.

If it doesn't work the worst they could do is not let you see the 360. No big deal, head to a different store.
So you haven't played any burned games since august? I would keep it that way until the ban wave is over, like sjones900 said. Or at least until someone pinpoints the problem. Trust me, you don't want to blow $200 on a new 360 when it could have been avoided.

Yeah, I think the last 360 game I played was Mass Effect... and that was during August. But I did pop in RE5 for like 2 minutes about 3 or 4 weeks ago.

Also, if I do end up getting banned, I wont blow off 200 bucks. I'm gonna buy a new Arcade and swap it with my Pro, then return it.

 

[sjones900]

Hey did anyone know that the modern warfare 2 iso that was leaked a few days ago actually is a hybrid disc.. Meaning someone mixed the stealth files from CoD4 into this because they didn't have them. So whoever ripped it did not use kreon drive, and you should all probably wait until you can get a hold of the real stealth files. Also it will not boot under 1.61 without the activate iso even though its Wave 4 supported because of the stealth files..

 

[popopola]

if you get banned would microsoft send you an email to the your email address?

I don't want to check on my xbox... =|

 

[Dermy]

if you get banned would microsoft send you an email to the your email address?

I don't want to check on my xbox... =|

Nope, they only do that for gamertag bans.

 

[QuantumFluxx]

if you get banned would microsoft send you an email to the your email address?

I don't want to check on my xbox... =|

My method I posted a few pages back is still looking more and more accurate. If you want to know whether your banned, or flagged for a ban, follow the simple steps. I'll post them again for those who don't want to dig through old pages:

QUOTETo see if your console is banned without logging on:

1. Register (if it is not already) console on Xbox.com
2. Click "Request a Repair" button
3. Check the returned URL. If it contains "Errors.aspx?id=54420" console is banned, or flagged for a ban.

Important: If you check the status from a portal of Xbox.com outside of the US portal, you will likely get no errors. This is NOT an accurate test, the Xbox Live servers are BASED in the USA. It only makes sense that they will have the up to date info, while the affiliate websites with little polish and care just arbitrarily let you in.

I want to stress that while this information may not be 100% accurate, the evidence is definately pointing in favor of accuracy. Reports of users calling Microsoft directly and telling them they get that error are told that their consoles were detected for modification. You gotta remember Microsoft does their bans in a wave that lasts a week or two. The data and information is collected over the course of the entire previous year. Its logical to assume that microsoft doesnt decide who to ban only within the 2 weeks of the ban wave. It's also logical to assume that they start the wave with a well thought plan on who their going to ban. Why they do it over the course of a a week or two and not all at once is unknown.

All I know for my own experience, is that the friends of mine who are banned, which is all but one at this point, all of them get that error when trying to check your banned 360, while the ones with an unmodded 360 similarly get NO error on that unit. That last friend gets the error, but right now isn't banned, but I'm basing off the evidence that continues to mount, that MS began this wave knowing EXACTLY who they were taking out.

We will see when the smoke settles who recieved the error code and who got banned. I guarantee though that if your currently banned and do this test, you WILL get the error. That evidence should speak for itself really. Naysayers are only serving to add to the casualties at this point.

 

[deathfisaro]

Yes that is correct.

If your 360 is flagged for ban but you have not logged in to receive the ban message, your 360 can still earn achievements and update gamerscore on xbl by swapping the HDD to a legit 360.

In other words, an offline-360-flagged-for-ban is better than a 360-with-confirmed-ban.

Thanks, exactly what I was looking for.

My 360 is a Premium with Sammy ms28, was using iXtreme 1.3 (yes, one point three) for like two years and updated to 1.51 in July IIRC.
I wasn't banned when I checked yesterday but I expect to be flagged anyway so I'm gonna use it as an offline console that doesn't corrupt saves 8)

 

[FAST6191]

@War +1 to the "I need to check it to make sure it is the most recent version" works well enough when I have had to do such things in the past (even if they do not know why most people will have heard something about the less than reliable nature of the 360s), in various shops around here I could probably still buy a 2008 elite (I certainly could back in September when we were last buying 360s).

Re disc quality pictures: that is a jitter test/scan by any other name..... I thought we had left those in the past already.

 

[martin88]

@martin: Well, that's the thing. I can't just go to WalMart and ask the guy "Hey, can you hand me one of those 360s? *checks manufacture date* Can I get a different one?" He'd be suspicious. And I can't just check them all myself because WalMart has them locked up behind a glass case. The clerk has to go up to it, unlock it, get a 360 out and hand it to me.

I'm sure you know there's a little window on the box that you can check the manufacturing date. As long as you don't open the box, I see no reason why you can't request to see and pick another one.

You're buying the thing, of course you can choose which one to buy.

 

[olliepop2000]

These are not correctable errors I'm seeing tho.. These are bad burns, here's a perfect example.

See that spike? That tells me something happened there during the burning process or there is a fault in that area on the disc.
This was burned on my old lg dvd burner though, I have a new computer and a new burner.

That was Fable 2 by the way, and this was installable to the hard drive if that matters to anyone.

You have contradicted yourself there..