MS Ban Hammer - 10.30.09

Microsoft is also a corporation running a business and if it's only affecting a small portion of their operations then they might not see it as good business sense to put resources in closing that gap. Like their initial design flaw that lead to the RRods, it wasn't until it hit their revenue stream that they had to put action into it.

So if they wanted to add more control into our systems to prevent whatever, I'm sure if they put the money into it then it can be closed up but it won't happen until they consider it worth their time.

 

Hey All. A question, which I'm guessing the answer will be unclear for the time being though I ask in that this ban in terms of the time period seems to be exactly parallel to last years november ban - at what point did a solution/a stopping of en-mass bannings and an update to firmware take place?

I'm running a lite on with 1.6. I've been online with an hour at a time from oct 30th infrequently till the 7th nov when news of the bannings broke large as I hadn't been keeping up with current events. I went on for 20min to try my luck on the 8th (hey, being banned has always been a possibility) and still no ban. I've decided now to check periodically every day since using the youtube method described earlier (Z:Code on net test 1901D) and I'm still getting a good code.

I modded my machine in august and have played copies of ghostbusters, batman AA, a wave 4 boot disc enabled copy of tekken 6, GTA episodes - and again was online between oct 30th - nov 7th infrequently. Last night i installed a stealth patched COD6 for single player action but understand stealth patches seem to be doing squat in terms of protection.

I can still use my HDD and hold out for new firmware and some answers so I got off lightly. I'm itching to know why I'm ok and if the november wave is limited in nature (i.e. theres a magic date like 13.11.09 as some poster flung into the air whereby en-mass bannings are a lot less likely).

Still - all said and done I knew the risks, have saved money and fair play for MS for protecting their product. It just stinks in that you get the impression that with the strength and scale of this ban, MS could do this all year round. MS are complicit to a degree - make a big scale ban over three weeks in november, it makes a good headline to developers and the public and they make a tonne on rebought hardware.

 

Lets leave this forum for the supposed "thieves" only please! Its worthless to have anyone besides the aforementioned commenting in here...

 

See, that's just the thing. By doing ban waves occasionally throughout the year, specially around the holiday season, they guarantee that they'll sell more XBoxes. You're addicted. You know how easy it is to mod the box, so you do it. You get banned, and eh.... You get another $300 box and mod it again.

They aren't trying to protect their resources on XBL, they are simply forcing more sales.

 

Hey guys! New to this forum! Hoping someone can put my mind at ease!!!

Well, I havent used my xbox for nearly 3 weeks now. Been stashed away in a cupboard due to some annoying circumstances.

Been sitting here on edge reading about this massive ban hammer!

I could whip it out if I really needed to and check it, but to be honest I'm worried about facing the reality that I could be banned!! Sad, but true!

But I've been thinking...if I have indeed been banned, is there anyway to get around it becuase I haven't been on live in so long?

Could I say, buy a new console and recover my gamertag on that and continue as normal?

I've read this thread: but to be honest I was a little confused by the explanation relating to your gamertag.

Also, could someone explain simply what happens to your gamerscore? I've barely gained any score from back-up copies, nearly all of it was from games I bought, and I'd like to think it would still be intact if I was able to recover my gamertag on another console.

Many Thanks, hope someone can help me! :]

 

someone else mentioned this earlier, try calling m$ and ask if your eligible for to send your xbox in for repair. If your on the list to get banned, as soon as you log on to live, you'll be banned.

 

Mate the law is if you buy a stolen car the plice take the car from you with no refund or compensation, isnt that worse? At least you get an xbox to play copies

 

I think the real test is to get a brand new xbox, flash it and dont use a single game with it. Leave that xbox connected to live for days on end and keep logging on and off to see if it gets banned. That will tell all of us if its a firmware detection or software!!

I cant belive this has not been tested by anybody! If it has id love to see results please!!

 

I agree that is a great way to test if it is the FW. I know it has been said before that C4eva is running test on 3 xbox, but I wonder if he is putting games in them too or just testing one of them without a game.

Anyone willing to go to WM and get a $100 arcade to test it while it's still on sale? The sale is suppose to last till 11/13 I believe.

 

AHA! But we aren't talking about stolen cars here mate. If you want to follow along with the analogy, the XBOX console (the car) isn't what is stolen, it is the software (the gasoline) that is being pirated. But Microsoft isn't reclaiming or disabling the stolen software (gas), they are disabling the entire car - permanently. So when an unsuspecting end-user goes to drive the car that they bought used, they find out that they are not allowed to drive it on the road because the owner before them put stolen gasoline in it.

 

I do not believe its a firmware detection software. I have been playing Halo-3 ODST (Maps Disk) ever since the ban wave started. I have not been banned yet.
The only theory I have is that they are detecting some thing on the game discs to say whether you are running a burned copy. If it was a firmware detection tool/software I am sure the server side software that detects this will run forever and will check every single log-on and then ban if necessary. Another thing I can think of is that I have not really tried a game disc, I have only been playing an expansion pack so that could be a reason. I will possibly buy the COD4:MW2 tomorrow and if I get banned I will post. I am not sure if people running original DVDs have been getting banned or not.

 

All 3 are modded, one is running verified backups, one is running originals, and one is doing nothing, just idling on live.

I heard a few people say that they are a bit suspicious of the ABGX database's accuracy. It's just speculation though.

 

Agbx is a database uploaded by certain people. Maybe microsoft paid them off to detect people.

 

newbie here.
i flashed my box about a month ago (hitashi 1.51). I only played:
COD4
Halo Wars
Red Faction
All checked and double checked by abg.
I got banned on 11/08.
The only culprit that I could find is the booktype on my burnt games (i didn't set it to dvdrom when burning.stupid). I'm kindda new on this xbox flashing thing so i don't know if it makes any difference.
well, i'm off to buy a new one (i'll probably wait till the ban wave is done to flash it again).

 

Well my Lite-On 1.51 is NOT banned still. However, I grabbed another Arcade on the $100 Wal-Mart deal so I think I'm going to sell the modded one. I just don't play enough games to make all this worth it. If it was before for me and I had tons of time to play different games it would be different.

I only have time to play a few select games, I'll just buy them. Thanks for everyone that helped me on here.

BTW, anyone want to purchase a Kreon flashed SH-D163B drive? It is practically new, probably ripped about 20 games with it. PM me.

Thanks

 

does any one know if you will still get banned if you revert your console back to its default firmware? gonna restore my drive back to normal. hasnt been turned on in about 2 months. and has only played 2 back ups and both where offline and my own rips.

 

No-one really knows. Some people say it's the firmware MS detect, others say it's the backups. If you haven't played in a while, and when you did you only played a few select games offline using your own rips, I'd say you'll be alright.