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

[FAST6191]

4. My apologies, I probably sent you down the wrong line of thought.
The date your 360 was manufactured on is a rough guide to what drive is in there. Had it been a later one then it would have been an 8 series liteon which only has 1.6 available for it.
The fact yours is earlier means it is probably a 7 series liteon drive in there which has 1.51 available. Not knowing your modder I am reluctant to say (some are good and some are cowboys, it might have been flashed early and left on the shelf for all I know).

5. 1.61 is only available to Samsung and benq drives at the moment. I can almost guarantee you are not running that (nobody is going to spoof an old drive unless they have to any more).
If you are on 1.6 (not 1.51) it has a so called on shot boot disc that means you can put that disc in take it out and the next disc will not be checked (although full stealth will be used if it is possible). You will need to do this each and every time you want to run a wave 4 game.

6. The system firmware has nothing to do with the games or banning beyond whatever checks it has built into it. Once banned you can now no longer use the hard drive installs and some network functionality (there was a list of things earlier on) but games should still play fine.

7. System updates can be burned to disc (regular CD or something) as I recall but I have not done such a thing in years so I will duck out here.
Also this whole wave 4 stuff is MS pushing updates on discs so if you can run one of those games then you can update that way. Most updates are really not very important though.

8. No, you will need to flash the drive again. Fortunately the firmware once flashed will give up keys on command so no need for a probe.

 

[Rock Raiyu]

@[X]nWo[X] ) [c4eva] new fw in dev/test - ixtreme LT (Lite Touch) - more efficient , minimal patching , all aspects of fw indistinguisable from orig, no more bans, No ETA!
.:23·40·37:. ( @[X]nWo[X] ) dont ask eta = ban
.:23·40·40:. ( @[X]nWo[X] ) dont ask question = ban
.:23·40·45:. ( @[X]nWo[X] ) liteon will be 1st

( @[X]nWo[X] ) we ripped 40+ ntsc games
( @[X]nWo[X] ) at least every 3rd didnt verify :c
( @[X]nWo[X] ) with a properly ripped ntsc
( @[X]nWo[X] ) so the db = defn has problems
( @[X]nWo[X] ) madden 10 is a prime exampke
( @[X]nWo[X] ) example

every 3rd wave game they said was verify actually wasnt.

So wait...we have been playing un-verified games and thats probably how Microsoft could tell the difference???

 

[CJL18]

@[X]nWo[X] ) [c4eva] new fw in dev/test - ixtreme LT (Lite Touch) - more efficient , minimal patching , all aspects of fw indistinguisable from orig, no more bans, No ETA!
.:23·40·37:. ( @[X]nWo[X] ) dont ask eta = ban
.:23·40·40:. ( @[X]nWo[X] ) dont ask question = ban
.:23·40·45:. ( @[X]nWo[X] ) liteon will be 1st

( @[X]nWo[X] ) we ripped 40+ ntsc games
( @[X]nWo[X] ) at least every 3rd didnt verify :c
( @[X]nWo[X] ) with a properly ripped ntsc
( @[X]nWo[X] ) so the db = defn has problems
( @[X]nWo[X] ) madden 10 is a prime exampke
( @[X]nWo[X] ) example

every 3rd wave game they said was verify actually wasnt.

So wait...we have been playing un-verified games and thats probably how Microsoft could tell the difference???

yep!

 

[moddman]

well I got banned from xbox live. my console is banned. I had a flashed disk drive, but playing legit games recently and still got banned...IDK what happened

 

[War]

Holy shit.... if the bannings have anything to do with Wave 3, then that would make a little sense. I haven't played a single Wave 3 or Wave 4 game yet. But is it confirmed that Wave 3 is what's causing the bans?

 

[jaxxster]

>> C4Eva announced he's working on a new firmware on IRC:
"[c4eva] new fw in dev/test - ixtreme LT (Lite Touch) - more efficient , minimal patching , all aspects of fw indistinguisable from orig, no more bans, No ETA!"

News-Source: #fw@EFNet

Ahh come on how many times has he said that there'll be no more bans due to a new firmware now? I give up.

 

[olliepop2000]

I think we have all been far too complacent since the bug was fixed at ix 1.4. I think he has lost credibility and a lot of us are now not going to trust flashing to ix if we want to keep on live. The 2nd hand market is now going to be completely flooded with banned units. Fine if you never intend on using live, installing games or using media center etc.

 

[jaxxster]

I can understand a ban but why should they damage our harddrives? Surely there's no point in that....oh wait there is, its MS we're talking about...customer wants a new HDD = Overpriced $$$ for MS

Plus whats the point in releasing a new firmware when everyone who goes out and buys a new console faces a high possibilty of them being unflashable or we go down the 2nd hand route which means the xbox will RROD...its a lose lose situation

 

[Armadillo]

You don't need a new hdd. It's not damaged, just certain features disabled on a banned box. New firmware is for people who aren't banned yet or people with unflashed consoles, also there is still plenty of older stock out there with the older flashable lite-ons.

Not that it'll make a difference, every year same thing, ban wave, new firmware and repeat for next year.

 

[Originality]

I just had a console banned just from the main menu of Halo 3: ODST (never even started playing it, let alone online). BenQ drive with iX1.6, and it happened within seconds of connecting it to my laptop to try ICS in order to simply update the game to the latest version. Other games so far on other consoles (mostly BenQs flashed with 1.6) have not gotten me banned at any point, although I generally don't play them online (but did let them update) and I always triple check every game I burn (ABGX360 the image, disk burn CRC, then ABGX360 again to make sure) - which seems to be less reliable than in the past.

Something I noticed - all 4 profiles on the 2 MUs inserted became corrupted such that they would only work on the banned console and no other (savegames were unaffected, and 2 of the profiles were hardly an hour old). That and, as reported countless times, the HDD became crippled in that the installed games wouldn't work on it, although sticking it in another console and reinstalling the games worked just fine. MUs too, although I'm not going to dare put them back in the banned console again. Maybe for RPGs, but definitely not for anything multiplayer.

 

[jaxxster]

Plus wanted to add that so what if the new firmware in undetectable? Surely we'll get sucked into believng some rips out there are decent when they wont be and get banned that way.

 

[Strider]

My console is banned now. I'm not saying 'it just got banned' because it doesn't feel like that.

Tech specs:

Benq iXtreme 1.4.1

So, I haven't even played a Wave 3 game. I haven't played anything besides Castle Crashers in ages (>1 year) anyway. Also, I've not been online or have played anything since the ban wave started.

I thought I'd just have a look now. Turns out, I'm banned. I suppose they've been collecting data about copies for some while now and are now banning retroactively. That's almost the only explanation.


It's funny though. They just lost a customer (nearly my only interest is XB Arcade) any I'll never buy another X360; rather a PS3. Way to shoot yourself in the foot. To top it off: I'm going to upgrade my drive flash, and play the newest copies...

To all those who think you can save your console from a ban by staying offline: you can't. Take it like a man.

 

[deathfisaro]

Just having your drive flashed is enough to get your console banned.
I'm pretty certain Live user agreement (or whatever else it is called) has this covered (nobody reads it, but you should. I read the entire PSN user agreement to see if I'm gonna get stabbed some time).

The only difference is that people who got banned after playing tons of backup games efficiently used their modded console, and people who played legit games would have been better off without flashing.

 

[jaxxster]

one thing that makes me wonder is how many people in microsoft actually know how bans are detected? I can only assume that its only a very few select people, like im talking a max of 10 employees because if it was more than that then someone would have spilled the beans.

If only we had an insider who told us how mods are detected we could have the upper hand and use it effiecently to make a fully stealth and invisible firmware.

 

[Strider]

Just having your drive flashed is enough to get your console banned.

I didn't get that impression reading this thread. However, if the X360 is able to analyze the firmware, the modding is over right now and it will not be possible to create any firmware that passes a legit check.

 

[WeaponXxX]

Im at the mall now and earliest born on date is July 13 2009. what are the chances this has a moddable liteon? Also does pro, arcade, or elite models matter?

 

[olliepop2000]

Banned peeps may be interested in XBConnect. Not tried it myself yet, it looks like a VPN software so we can play system link games online better than nothing.

 

[superrob]

Dammit i got the hammer. Anyway it was fun while it lasted

But hey at least i can play modern warfare 2 without worries.

 

[Maz7006]

Haven't been on live for some time now, i should be safe in the sense i just want to update my gamescore by logging into live right ?

i.e. i don't have any intention of playing games when my xbox is on live.

may already have been mentioned, but looking a the 20 or so pages of text, can anyone clarify how MS was able to detect so many of us?

 

[yardsman]

To 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.

Sorry, that's just a general out-of-warranty-Xbox-we-refuse-to-fix error page. I've been getting that since I tried sending in a box with the RRoD error that didn't have a warranty sticker, and when I tried again months later that part of the URL came up, according to my browser's history. The console wasn't flashed when I tried that, and after I got it repaired elsewhere I played online just fine until it broke again three days later. That page turning up by no means specifies a ban. Find a new method.

Why then does my launch legit unit with a long expired warranty still take me to the next page? Warranty status doesn't dictate whether you can get it repaired whatsoever. Getting to the page you will see a price on how much they will charge for the repair. A modded console they don't want to have anything to do with, THATS why the error is there. I'm sorry but this method is sound.

AshuraZro: Humor me and go to the xbox support page and enter your banned 360's info, and post if you get the 54420 error. Infact if everyone in here who has a banned 360 could do this, I think you will see the pattern I've been seeing for days.

And in answer to your question Ash, yes you can use your hard drive in the new 360 with no problems, but you will have to recover your gamertag. Also any gamesaves made AFTER the ban will be corrupt forever, so don't play the games until you've either made a backup of the save or just don't plan to play a legit copy of the game in question.

Just to add my 2 cents, I had the 54420 error and a call-in told me that my console has been flagged, so I guess that makes me a statistic. If anyone's interested, I had a samsung from 2005 or so, used ixtreme 1.4, then 1.6, then 1.61 just recently. Never played any pre-releases or non-scene releases, everything double-checked with abgx360 and before that, xdvdmulleter. Survived last year's ban wave with this setup, but I guess they got me this time, oh wells