Okay, since it gets asked at least thrice daily...

NO, MS is not banning accounts/consoles from Live than have modified firmware at this time.

- They may very well start to do so as soon as I finish writing this post. Maybe not.

YES, you can play your backups on Live.

- We at X-S do not condone this as it constitutes a violation of Live's TOS, so don't discuss it here. You may very well be getting flagged for doing it. Maybe that'll result in a ban when they start handing them out. Maybe only those doing so after the bans begin.

NO, there is no evidence either way that MS is collecting info on those with modded firmware at this time.

- Lots of rumors and speculation but nothing official. You run the risk of possibly getting the ban hammer at some time by going anywhere near an ethernet cable with your firmware flashed.

When deciding if you want to run modified firmware, remember that every 360 game attempts to connect to Live if only to update acheivements and tell others you're playing that game.. even the purely offline RPGs, etc.

This is simply a brief summary of all the discussion occuring about possible MS reactions. It is not gospel, but please stop asking questions already answered here.

If Microsoft's solution to firmware hacks doesn't show up in the fall update, then I doubt it will show up at all. Firmware hacks date back to early 2006, and Microsoft is well aware of the problem.

My guess is they're gonna do the same thing they did with Xbox 1.
The banhammer started to drop around the release of Halo 2.
I expect the banhammer to drop on the 360 consoles just before the release of Halo 3.

Thanx for info

Btw i am really new to this... what is "the banhammer".

That's Bungie's term for being banned from Xbox Live.

BTW Xombe, good thinking.
This was really needed... BADLY.

prob should be pinned in several forums, although 80% of people never read them anyhow...

Mods: Pin it in any forums you feel would benefit from it (360 Live forum, etc).

Quote-copy the body and link back here. Pin-close them and we'll lump the discussion in here.

are people still busy coding a Firmware Stealth or isnt that possible, if they can make it... can MS still see that we use a mod xbox 360 or not..?

This statement is incorrect. People were being banned from Live LONG before Halo2 came out.

yeah I was gonna say I remember playing on BETA LiVE and then once it launched and went 'LiVE' -hehe
everyone who was playing with a mod was banned

lets just hope for the best

Im no expert but I would think it harder for MS to see the dvd drive Hack than a chip in an xbox.

theyr not stupid. and they will be WELL aware of the hack. and how it works, and every variation in every precise detail and how to detect it. I dont know what theyr playing at but im quite sure they could detect it and ban peope if they want.

they wouldnt wanna piss off their most loyal customers right before 2 other console launches, now would they?

That's utter rubbish...

In Microsoft's terms you are not much of a loyal customer if you are playing
backups on live.

Don't get me wrong - you may be playing a legitimate backup of a game you own
but i don't think microsoft will see it that way.

They will probably think you are a pirate who is stealing games and therefore
actually costing them money rather than increasing their earnings.

Remember every 360 is sold at a loss with Microsoft betting on people buying
games and peripherals for it to make up the shortfall and give them a profit.

If they can detect people using these hacks they will eventually ban them.

On a side note though look at the new DVD drives coming out in 360's

Hitachi with firmware 78 cannot be put into mode b with the wire trick
or the connectivity kit - only with the slax cd.

Even then the firmware that is read to your orig.bin with memdump etc
is completely different from previous hitachi's.

GaryOPA is still looking for somone to do a read of a version 78 on an external chip
programmer because it looks like the firmware is nothing like the old hitachi models.

Then look at the Samsung MS28 - a lot harder to flash than the old ms25's

Microsoft is actively trying to combat people flashing their drives in the first place
which kind of leads me to believe that they cannot do anything about drives that
are already flashed at the moment.

But i am guessing the next dashboard upgrade will be a nervous moment for
all you people with flashed drives as it could mean the end of your live accounts.

Regards

Niteman1969

They dont really gain anything by banning people, if your banned from live you no reason to go and buy the games as your not gonna gain anything.

If they do a check everytime you connect to live and if modifed drop the connectioon. It will give people reason to remove the mods and buy the games especially with halo3. Who wants to miss out on halo3 multiplayer...

What about not playing your backups on live but getting updaters for games e.t.c is that still risky

also when the fall update comes will there be an option to update or not. cos if u dont update does that mean u can still play on live?

When an update comes out you wont be able to play on live without the update, you also wont be able to play the latest release games even offline as they will say some bs like:
"This game cannot run without the latest update, do you wish to install the update now? Y / N"

They will not be so nice. If they have a way to ban they will drop the hammer quick.

i think microsoft would start banning if they could, it's been around a half year now since these have been out and confirmed working, and there have been plenty of updates in between, i just think they're going to make the drives harder to flash, that's just my opinion...


anyway, when's the fall update supposed to come out?

Is there anyway MS can tell you have modified the firmware without being on XBOX LIVE?
If you are on xbox live with modified firmware can they do something to your xbox to maybe stop it from working properly altogether?

We just dont know, plain and simple
Wait for a dash update, watch the x-s news and you should have your answer.

I doubt they will break your xbox, they will only ban it from XBL.

do you know when the fall update is? or does anyone for that matter?

and there indeed has been major dash updates since these firms were released right?

im gettting an xbox 360 tomorrow with xtreme firmware.

im wondering if im go on live. to download demos and stuff. would it automaticly uprgrade my firmware or something so i cant play my backups

I dont know if they can tell if you have the modded dvd firmware or not.

The thing that might be in everyone's favour is that the dvd firmware hack for the xbox 1 didnt happen until after the xbox 360 was developed. I dont think Microsoft looked down this path, I think microsoft's biggest focus was to try and stop the system being modchipped. They didnt find out about this chink in their armour which was also there for the first xbox until after they had already released the system.

It all comes down to how much reporting back the machine does to microsoft, it doesnt matter much how software microsoft try to implement if the drive doesnt report its firmware to the system or isnt able to be reported to microsoft then there is nothing that can be done about it.

You would think that if Microsoft have developed drives to make it harder to flash that they may not have a way of knowing otherwise they would just banhammer everyone from xbox live.

OOOOR they realised that by banhammering everyone like they did with the XBox 1 that they lost millions in XBox live revenue by gamers not using it.

I would of had it if I could have and I am sure that many others would be like that also.

So it comes down to 3 senarios

1. Microsoft cant stop it as the system doesnt report back which firmware the drive has
2. Micirosoft are working on something and the chance is there for a banhammer
3. Microsoft could ban everyone, but realise that every person that they ban they are losing a live member or a potential live membership, which equates to a big loss of money. I believe that Microsoft made a huge financial mistake by banning people with the first xbox.

This question may have been asked before, i couldnt find answers in the search.

so if u get the firmware modded and its stealth, would the risk of playing backed up games be the same as playing originals on live? if we have the mod, but wanna play originals on live only, would that make any difference in terms of the chance of getting banned?.

and does anyone know when the fall update is scheduled ??

Are they Kidding? !

Live update downtime due to start in 7 hours...

Anyone volunteering a test firmware hacked console to log on to live tomorrow?

I think you hit the nail on the head with these points. I've been reading alot about how much money Microsoft lost, and is losing currently. I have a sneaky suspicion that they are seriously re-thinking banning people. Right now, you can only play backups by modding the dvd drive. There hasn't been anything as far as changing the dashboard, etc....yet.

I took a break from consoles from 2000-2004. Then, I picked up an Xbox (soon,I got the other 2). So, I'm not sure when the bannings began. I thought it had to do with people cheating in Halo multiplayer by using dashboard trainers, or exploits (ala Evox, etc.). Maybe someone who knows more can confirm or deny that.


Me, I'm not really worried about being banned from Live. I don't really play multiplayer that often. I use it to download new demos before the come in on an OXM disc. And I like the exclusives they have as well. I chat with a friend I made while we were camping out for our 360's at launch. But, that's about it. I can chat with my friend some other way. And, I also can play multiplayer on my gaming PC. So, it's not a big deal. I would miss Live, certainly. But, I can live without it if I have to.

i beta tested live with a modded box, and the day it went official, i was at the store buying a new xbox lol, because i was banned. i fully expect bannings to start happening soon, but we'll see. i would imagine we might start seeing people banned tomorrow.

Look my bro works for microsoft and he says why ban people who are giving microsoft 40GBP a year for live and spending cash on MP beleave me they no all about the firmware. The thing is they cant allow it forever they want you to taste live but i can asure you the dash update is gonna be a shock to you all cos i have a e-mail with included features in the Build like MSN and Browsing. the new system has a disk check so the people who download will be fucked i also heard there putting a key on every game for some reason i dont no but hey microsoft are rich as fuck and have the best people in the world. not disin the firmware but man do you think they dont no we have only scratched the surface. you all goto no that the consoll sends reports home to mumy i mean come on.

you might have a bit more credibility if your grammer/spelling was better and you didn't sign up for the sole purpose of saying that. also, ps2 online games had a unique key like you mention, and it was a matter of days before that was cracked.

Well dude fine by me just giving people a heads up by signing up and posting. beleave what you want and then post in hear tomorow after you tried to sign into live

to the guy who has a brothat works for ms.
if u have this email then show us?? other wise ur just b/s
i have a very good friend who works for microsoft infact he's working on the new tv package that ms are gonna be dishing out next year.
he also programs missiles for the goverment and belive me he is a very reliable source.
as far as he has been told there will be no bans with this suprise downtime.
he told me about it a few weeks ago so i made plans to go out tonight etc blah blah blah.

i dont belive what u say, and any person could tell u that ms are gonna start banning thats obvious. but u giving a bs story about ur bro working for them and this invisble email just really doesnt cut it.

So... anyone try live yet?

im on it right now.
modded sammy drive working fine

I've got a modded TS ms25 drive, heh, and I still have xtreme 1.0. I'm on Xbox Live with no problems. At first I was getting the "profile might be invalid" message. Certainly made me nervous, but it was apparently some networking weirdness on my end, as I am currently signed in just fine now.

Be sure to post what drive is working with it as well... the more info the better

Cant connect here.

MS25 - Xtreme 4.1a FW

When i ran newtwork check last night i got as far as the MTU check which failed, it was only when i looked at the details i remembered XBlive was down.

Today it passes the MTU test but fails on the xbox live test, when i click for details the detail box is empty.

Ill give it a day or 2 before i panic, they may still be having teething troubles after the update.

Slim

There are connection problems at the moment anyway. Its the same with none modded boxes. some areas it is working some not.

Cheers m8

Thats what i was thinkin.

i call BS.. as its not a dashupdate is it..

this is wot i get

i was on for about an hour, changed game and this happened

yea im on live playing right now

Either you're 8, or English isn't your first language. Either way, you're not a credible source.

-Charlie

surely if they can put a key on a disk we can copy that as well the same as a security sector

Drive: Hitachi LG - GDR 3120
Firmware: Maximus GaryOPA 2.2 Stealth

I was able to play splinter cell Db for a few hours... then i started to play street fighter 2 and I suddenly disconected from xbox live.. its been 3 hours and I still have not been able to get on live. I do a connection test and the only part that fails is the xbox live section...

Same with me. Hopefully it has more do to with Xbox Live's lack of stabilty right now, rather than being a firmware issue.

FYI, I played xbox live for 2-3 straight hours earlier (Halo 2, and PGR3) and didn't get disconnected once. I have unmodified firmware.

-Charlie