Speculation, Theories, Discoveries About The Ban In This Thread Only, Any other thread will be closed Options

[Havok]

The answer is YES you can be but as far as we know MS is not checking the firmware itself right now.

If MS figures out a way to reliably detect the firmware they will check your system when you connect to live... They could also check when you are offline as well.

(note they are not doing this yet.. (we dont think) but they may in the future)

If you modify your system you give up your warranty and there is ALWAYS a small risk of being banned in the future.

[spanky456]

So if you were to keep a copy of your original firmware and restore it every time you went on Live, would you still run the risk of being banned?

[Redronin]

if you have a banned box can you still play original copies out of the store offline?

are firmware flashers which external molex psu connecters safer than ones which operate off the 360 psu?

talking about something like

[Havok]

So if you were to keep a copy of your original firmware and restore it every time you went on Live, would you still run the risk of being banned?

Possibly if MS decided to do offline checks.

if you have a banned box can you still play original copies out of the store offline?

are firmware flashers which external molex psu connecters safer than ones which operate off the 360 psu?

talking about something like

Yes.. being banned does not affect its operation.. you just can no longer connect to the Live network.

It probably doesn't matter how you power the box.. but using an external connect with prevent any error logging... (if any exists..)

[justice91423]

My understanding is that there have been no reports of BenQ dive 360s being banned. One thing I read a while back was that the BenQ drive can not detect the size of a DVD (IE when the request for the size of the dvd is sent to the drive, it returns an error). This leads me to the possibility that Xbox live is requesting the size of the dvd and when it receives the wrong answer, it bans the box. Since the BenQ can not answer the request it cant be banned.

I have 2 questions... has anyone seen any discussions along this line... and is there anyway to determine the size of the DVD once it is on the disc? (without the original image)


Some one sent me this post in an email, but i dont have access to the forum it came from.

"~ I think it's something to do with the 7.05GB releases. I have tried stealth checks with 7.05GB and 7.29GB image files in the new schtrom 360xtract v3.4. Every game i checked that was 7.05GB was missing "video layer 1 blank" and "video layer 1 on layer 1". Every game that was 7.29GB (splitvid), passed every stealth field and video layer 1 was present. Just a thought. I think M$ is doing basically the same kind of check. ~"

[Havok]

My understanding is that there have been no reports of BenQ dive 360s being banned. One thing I read a while back was that the BenQ drive can not detect the size of a DVD (IE when the request for the size of the dvd is sent to the drive, it returns an error). This leads me to the possibility that Xbox live is requesting the size of the dvd and when it receives the wrong answer, it bans the box. Since the BenQ can not answer the request it cant be banned.

Not true many BenQ drives have been banned

I have 2 questions... has anyone seen any discussions along this line... and is there anyway to determine the size of the DVD once it is on the disc? (without the original image)
Some one sent me this post in an email, but i dont have access to the forum it came from.

"~ I think it's something to do with the 7.05GB releases. I have tried stealth checks with 7.05GB and 7.29GB image files in the new schtrom 360xtract v3.4. Every game i checked that was 7.05GB was missing "video layer 1 blank" and "video layer 1 on layer 1". Every game that was 7.29GB (splitvid), passed every stealth field and video layer 1 was present. Just a thought. I think M$ is doing basically the same kind of check. ~"

Its pretty well known that people were banned because of invalid SS, PFI and DMI data. Discs that are not made by your own hand may not provide the right info, and thats how people get banned. The stealth checking tools do not address this issue at all and offer no protection.

[DeMoN_DARREN]

Just a quickie surrounding the whole banning process - If someone was to right now flash a drive to the most basic of firmware and only play the most stupid of unprotected games, would this person get banned straight off the bat or would be take another banwave? I'm interested in the whole process of it

I think its almost certainly bad pirates that are getting banned (god bless) and people with bad backups. I see no reason that Microsoft can ban on firmware (there was a huge list of reasons in another topic) and a 1-1 backup should be undetectable, but thats a big SHOULD

p.s
personal plee, please don't get this topic shut people!

[papatrunks]

Can anyone link me to the thread that was created maybe about a week ago or so that explained about the second wave of LIVE bans? I came across it randomly as I was browsing through the forums but I can't find it anywhere at the moment. If not, maybe someone here can answer this question: I'm currently playing on a modded 360 given to me from a friend of mine but I've only been playing retail copies of current games, are the LIVE bans susceptible to firmware/bad backups or both? The other problem here is that I have no idea what firmware nor what type of DVD drive is installed but I will find out soon and hopefully provide this information in the appropriate thread.

Any tips/precautions about circumventing these bans is appreciated. Thanks!

[Avatar28]

As far as I know, only people playing bad backups have gotten banned. Certainly I've been on for months with a firmware modded drive but only using retail games and have not gotten banned. Of course, that could change but at the moment it doesn't appear to have happened.

[Havok]

Actually there were some early Hitachi firmwares that gave the wrong stealth information. So it is possible to be banned just for have a really old firmware.

[gli7ch]

Havok you are kickin' ass in this topic!

These bans also include if you suck at games too.

I.E. I knew a guy with -2000 gamerscore, banned right off the bat

[raidercrazy88]

Just curious if anyone has pursued the idea that they actually do something locally to break the xbox live layer as opposed to something server side banning your console id. All I know is I can unplug my 360 from my router and if I try to log in it tells me immediately 1 or more profiles could not be logged in (which is the banned message basically) as opposed to before I was banned it would sit there for a minute then tell me connection failed. Just a thought cause then maybe it's an OS thing locally. Probably wrong, but whatever

[Havok]

Just curious if anyone has pursued the idea that they actually do something locally to break the xbox live layer as opposed to something server side banning your console id. All I know is I can unplug my 360 from my router and if I try to log in it tells me immediately 1 or more profiles could not be logged in (which is the banned message basically) as opposed to before I was banned it would sit there for a minute then tell me connection failed. Just a thought cause then maybe it's an OS thing locally. Probably wrong, but whatever

If you unplug your router it gives you that message even when you are not banned...

[Danny92]

hey,
is anyone using good kreon backups on xbl with the new update??
if so have you analysed the update yet? and is there anything dangerous?
i dont want to update then get banned for using my backups.
thanks, much respect,
~Danny~

[toliman]

if you make the backups yourself with the kreon firmware/ 360 drive, scan them to compare the SS details with other kreon users online and burn them on a pio 111/112/212 with verbatim media, you're doing what about 95% of everyone else is doing to pass by without notice from the XBL bans.

however, it's an expensive trial and error process.