New Ban Wave

Thor

Just to let you all know there is a new ban wave in effect.

if you have been hit let us all know what firmware you have and dvd drive.

Info Here

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[*]October 2009 bans - 
[*]It's not the firmware we've had 1.51 and 1.6 and 1.61
[*]it's not the drive, all manufacturers have banned drives
[*]it's not any wave 4 game.  
[*]People who HAVEN'T played borderlands have been banned.  
[*]People who haven't done the wifi update have been banned. (if they can't connect at all, it doesn't even OFFER the update, you're banned.
[*]That's what we know.
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Havnt signed in myself, at times like this i like to ride it out offline.

Ciaran500

cisk wrote: »

Havnt signed in myself, at times like this i like to ride it out offline.

If any of the past waves are anything to go by it doesn't matter. If you're going to be banned, you've already ticked the boxes on your 360 and will be banned next time you go online.

Thats true, but i haven't been on-line in awhile. Id rather see the reports, and see if any counter measures can be taken.

So far hasn't been reports from anyone outside the US being banned. Hmm

@c4eva&gt

[21:06] <@c4eva&gt; livelog is complete, analysing!

@c4eva&gt

<@c4eva&gt; no new checks in livelog! will repeat in a few hours!

docentore

I have my xbox1 being modified and have to use 360 to play avi's etc.
Unfortunately there is something wrong with my Gamertag setup and I have to be connected to Live every time I'm trying watch a film.

That means: I'm connecting 2 times a day, with spoofed Lite-On as Benq (1.6), with burned game inside (again, I'm lazy and I just leave Fallout in the drive), with home-made hard drive. No ban yet. Thankfully I check my images using abgx.

But I think if so I should be first to be ban. I will update if something happens to my console (don't worry, I have another 4 waiting to be fixed ;P)

Lenny

Well I've been playing borderlands as of wednesdays and its still working grand enought today..

Thor

playing modern warfare 2 and its working grand.

Axwell

Thor wrote: »

playing modern warfare 2 and its working grand.

Not sure if its the case for you but the only versions ive seen out of that are patched jobs which arent retail and means a very high risk of being banned especially since the game isnt out for another 10 days.

antor

Anyone get hit with a ban yet,or is it just the US???

GAAman

docentore wrote: »

I have my xbox1 being modified and have to use 360 to play avi's etc.
Unfortunately there is something wrong with my Gamertag setup and I have to be connected to Live every time I'm trying watch a film.

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055536852

From time to time it will happen again but the last time i had to do it on mine was when i posted that thread hope it helps

s8n

I just got hit with a ban tonight. What do you folks suggest, is there a way around this ? Running 1.51 afaik (Docentore, it was your handiwork).

I'm not toobothered as I dont play online, but for some reason my profile is messed up and cant play .avi's. Any suggestions, or is the box now pretty useless ?

Axwell

s8n wrote: »

I just got hit with a ban tonight. What do you folks suggest, is there a way around this ? Running 1.51 afaik (Docentore, it was your handiwork).

I'm not toobothered as I dont play online, but for some reason my profile is messed up and cant play .avi's. Any suggestions, or is the box now pretty useless ?

Any ideas why you got caught out of curiousity? Were you playing games before their release dates on it?

s8n

Strangely....No.

As I said, I dont play online and am currently halfway through Arkham Asylum. I have never played a game before release date. Just signed in to view a video and it came up as banned....

Lenny

well I think you need to be connected to live to be able to play avi's because it gets the codec online

docentore

that means the wave started to hit Ireland. No one really knows why or how the ms knows which console to ban.

I'm going to power on mine, will see what happens.

EDIT: no ban yet.

Mikeyt086

The Wave HAS started to hit Ireland, i got banned about half an hour ago.

Was playing online earlier today with no problem, tried to sign in just there and got the "This console is banned from Xbox Live for terms of service abuse" thing.

I was running 1.60 i think, most likely banned because i played FIFA about 4 days before release date (i couldnt help myself lol).

Not too upset, will most likely go legit again.

Lenny

yea I got banned too.. but they ban console serial numbers and not by location

docentore

Lenny wrote: »

yea I got banned too.. but they ban console serial numbers and not by location

They DO ban by location. Up to yesterday there were no bans in Europe, just north and south Americas.

pH

Can someone confirm that once you're banned you lose the Install to Hard-drive capability for offline play?

Vic Vinegar

pH wrote: »

Can someone confirm that once you're banned you lose the Install to Hard-drive capability for offline play?

That is what happens, yeah.

look here

Axwell

Can those that got banned give some details

What firmware you are on, did you change it recently, do you play games before release etc. Seems Microsoft have upped their game a lot on the whole banning thing and are getting people that usually wouldnt get banned.

docentore

Axwell wrote: »

Can those that got banned give some details

What firmware you are on, did you change it recently, do you play games before release etc. Seems Microsoft have upped their game a lot on the whole banning thing and are getting people that usually wouldnt get banned.

here and here

Thats makes about 160 pages (just for now) of peoples reports etc. No point in copying them here just because someone got ban in Ireland I think. The reasoning would be the same. And still no one knows why they were banned.

And only way to avoid is stay away from Live with modded console. I tested yesterday if got ban, but then disconnected it completely. I don't care about Live but I don't want to lose possibility of installing games onto hard drive

Axwell

What gets banned though, the console or the gamertag or both?

Also if you have another hard drive I assume its worth sticking everything on to it and using that one for now, ie I have a 120gb and a 20gb if i transfer and use the 20gb one for now in case I get a ban least ill still have my 120gb one and it will be ok?

docentore

the console gets banned. hard drive will work on another hard drive, but I've heard that there might be a problem with saves etc.

Best solution: get memory card and backup your saves every evening/day after gaming session.

Axwell

I have 2 consoles, a premium and an elite. The premium got flashed a while back and is fine up till now anyways (fingers crossed), havent checked since around lunchtime and it was fine. I flashed the elite myself about 2 weeks ago but it hasnt been used on live yet, only tested it for about 1 min offline to see if it loaded a game ok. If i was to reflash it and install the original firmware back on do you think this console would be safe enough? I dont mind too much risking the flashed one knowing the other would be ok but I dont want 2 wasted xbox sitting there.

docentore

Axwell wrote: »

I have 2 consoles, a premium and an elite. The premium got flashed a while back and is fine up till now anyways (fingers crossed), havent checked since around lunchtime and it was fine. I flashed the elite myself about 2 weeks ago but it hasnt been used on live yet, only tested it for about 1 min offline to see if it loaded a game ok. If i was to reflash it and install the original firmware back on do you think this console would be safe enough? I dont mind too much risking the flashed one knowing the other would be ok but I dont want 2 wasted xbox sitting there.

I would leave Elite without reflashing, just don't play any dodgy discs on it. As far as everyone are concerned there is no way (I mean NO WAY) that Microsoft can check what firmware do you have. The only way they can see if you have dodgy console is by playing burned games.

Axwell

docentore wrote: »

here and here


And only way to avoid is stay away from Live with modded console. I tested yesterday if got ban, but then disconnected it completely. I don't care about Live but I don't want to lose possibility of installing games onto
hard drive

True but most of the games or better ones are multiplayer so you want to go on live to play them. I checked there today again and still no ban so fingers crossed. Also disconnecting it I assume wont make a difference really, if you are flagged for banning then next time you go on live you will get banned anyways. Unless you just dont go on live ever again?

As regards the hard drive thing I thought I read people are saying that this can be got around.

How long does the banning session usually last anyways from previous ban waves? Its moved on to Europe now so is there signs its stopped in the USA at this stage?

docentore

Axwell wrote: »

(...) Also disconnecting it I assume wont make a difference really, if you are flagged for banning then next time you go on live you will get banned anyways. Unless you just dont go on live ever again?
(...)

Thats true, I won't. The only game I ever played on Live was 1vs100.
I'm too easily getting addicted (almost like in Fallout) so I never tried to play any online games, not even WoW. Ok, I played some Q3 in old good times, but don't have time to do it now.

Axwell

docentore wrote: »

Thats true, I won't. The only game I ever played on Live was 1vs100.
I'm too easily getting addicted (almost like in Fallout) so I never tried to play any online games, not even WoW. Ok, I played some Q3 in old good times, but don't have time to do it now.

Your not so bad so. Ive looked on the forums and most people that have got banned have played games before the release date which is obviously stupid and their own fault. Some though havent and say they run agbx everytime to check their games and still got banned. So its hard to know whats getting people caught. I would hazard a guess in some cases though that even if the game passed on agbx that it could still be a bad rip or patched and they arent aware perhaps. If thats not the case then MS have to have come up with some new way to find out, up to now people who didnt play games early and took the necessary precautions always seemed to be ok so something is different this time. Any ideas on how long the banning sessions last though? I know with wave 4 they are a bit trigger happy so to speak but also a lot of people went on Modern warfare very early and forza which probably caused alerts, especially since MW2 is wave 4 and the versions people played were badly patched versions of the game.

phily2002

yep I got banned as well
didn't play early or anything like that, don't know how they got me
at least I have my Ps3 for online games

Axwell

Its starting to look more and more like they can detect firmware now.
Its the only common link between people that got banned. Some played games early, some didnt, some use agbx, some dont although. Ive read where people got banned, went and got another new console a few days later and flashed it and then just got banned again.

1. <+c4eva> fw itself not detectable
2. <+c4eva> suspect they are going hard on warez releases and incorrect use of abgx!
4. He also added the following:
6. <+c4eva> just to let you know that im looking into the current ban wave. I am currently running several brand new xboxs on live! These xboxs are in various configs. All are running ixtreme 1.61
7. <+c4eva> One is running original discs, another is running on xbl (no discs) , another is running a backup from my region!
8. <+c4eva> until tests are completed, no eta on liteon fw!

They haven't been able to detect Firmware in years so i doubt they can all of a sudden, they seem to be more strict on any sort of mismatch of a backup.

Axwell

There are apparently people who got banned, bought a new console and flashed it without putting any games into it and when they went online got banned. If this is true then its not down to agbx and other issues and is related to the firmware. Also the guy you are quoting is the guy who put up the firmware releases for 1.61 which havent been confirmed to be secure so hes bound to say its not the FW or else he will have a lot of people blaming him for getting banned. No one knows for sure so he could be as right or wrong as anyone else but going on the bans there is no pattern to suggest its agbx or bad rips alone and points more to something like them being able to see a firmware change.

docentore

Axwell wrote: »

There are apparently people who got banned, bought a new console and flashed it without putting any games into it and when they went online got banned. If this is true then its not down to agbx and other issues and is related to the firmware. Also the guy you are quoting is the guy who put up the firmware releases for 1.61 which havent been confirmed to be secure so hes bound to say its not the FW or else he will have a lot of people blaming him for getting banned. No one knows for sure so he could be as right or wrong as anyone else but going on the bans there is no pattern to suggest its agbx or bad rips alone and points more to something like them being able to see a firmware change.

The Guy cisk quoted (c4eva) is the guy who is The Boss of all Bosses in terms of Xbox 360 modding. He invented most of the firmwares. So if anyone will find out that gonna be him.

Axwell

Possibly but right now like i said its looking like FW is being caught so that means they can ban anyone they want at this point its just a matter of time. When people go and buy a new console and flash it without sticking any games in then plug it in and get banned it points to FW detection no matter what way you look at it.

GO'S

if you get banned can ypu still play the games offline? im considering gettin my xbox flashed and im just wondering

Dr4gul4

havent taken the two box's here online in a week or two now, altho i was tricking with mw2 offline.

I guess we shall have to wait and see nxt week

both box's are running 1.6

Axwell

Well if you were playing MW2 then you can be pretty sure you are facing a ban when you go back on live, there was no proper release of it out so thats gonne flag straight away.

To the person above yes you can play games offline still you just cant get on to live on the console once banned.

GO'S

Axwell wrote: »

Well if you were playing MW2 then you can be pretty sure you are facing a ban when you go back on live, there was no proper release of it out so thats gonne flag straight away.

To the person above yes you can play games offline still you just cant get on to live on the console once banned.

is it worth the gamble? my parents wont hand out money for another xbox but is it worth losing online?

Axwell

Well if you arent to bothered with live and playing multiplayer then it shouldnt bother you and is worth it. If you like the multiplayer then you take the risk of getting banned from live and having to get another console. At the minute with the ban wave going on you are probably better off to wait a few weeks before you flash your 360 anyways to be honest.

agriffin

I wonder how many people that got banned ran their disc back through ABGX
to see if their were any errors from burning.

Also the music industry were catching people from their ip address when they were downloading music.
How many banned people got their games from torrents where their ip is their for anyone to see and then logged into live with the same ip.

just my two cent, since most people are focusing on games been played early
as the main reason and not checking if their disc had burning errors.

Axwell

Bad rips will always mean people get banned but ip addresses is unlikely. Most people in Ireland dont have a static ip address so it changes everytime you log on to the internet. Its going to be down to playing games early, bad game rips, incorrectly installed firmware or the firmware being no detectable. In most cases its bad rips and playing early but people are reporting they bought new consoles and flashed them but didnt put any games in and went online to test and got banned shortly after. If thats true then it has to be related to the firmware, possilby the new 1.61 isnt reliable if they are installing that as the new firmware. Time will tell hopefully.

agriffin

ip addresses is probably unlikely but could be a factor.

As for people reporting they bought new consoles and flashed them but didnt put any games in is unlikley as i'm sure they put one in to see if their flashing worked.

Axwell

IP addresses as never been a factor and I doubt its going to start now, as regards those with new consoles they did it to test of the would get banned after flashing without putting a game in. They still got banned so they are saying the FW is the only possibility. As with all these things though you get people saying anything and everything online, that they didnt do this or that and they had perfect rips etc. No one knows for sure yet what caused all the bans but most are for playing games early for definite and also confirmed bad rips of games like UFC. After that who knows, perhaps some people played a game ages back that was a bad rip and no one noticed or knew at the time and its flagged them ages ago but the bans only kicked in now with this wave.

bluemachaveli

Posted by Stephen Toulouse on his Twitter. For those of you who don't know he is the Director of Policy and Enforcement for Xbox LIVE.

AKA the guy who bans consoles!

I've posted a detailed chart on how we detect modified consoles and how long ban runs last: Here

docentore

this is getting paranoid. Banning because I was downloading torrents and my console has the same IP? WTF???? This is not X-Files.

Also for 99.99% there is no way that they can see if the drive was flashed. There is no such a thing like "bad flash". Its working or you have 200e brick. simple as that.

I know that people are saying that they only flashed and then connected the xbox to live and got banned, but they are just saying. It doesn't have to be truth.

I'm just curious what will be next? Someone will say that one got ban just for opening console.

ongarite

Quick summary of whats know to happen now if your 360 is banned:

- What does this mean for you and what can you do about it?
Firstly, and most obviously, you cannot connect to Xbox Live on this console any more. This means no more game updates (aka title updates), XBLA games, marketplace content, netflix/sky player and so on. There is no way around this, all online capabilities are now disabled PERMANENTLY.

In all likelihood, your gamertag has NOT BEEN BANNED. When your gamertag gets banned, Microsoft sends you an email detailing why, if you have not recieved this email then your profile should be ok, to a certain extent.

Hard Drive installs are now disabled on the banned console. This means any disk-based games you have will no longer play off of the hard drive. If you attempt to play a game, it will tell you that it was installed on a different 360 and needs to be deleted/installed again. When you delete the game and attempt to install it, you are given a message telling you that it is not supported. There is no way to fix this, that functionality is simply gone from the banned 360.

The hard drive itself is left untouched - you can place it in another 360, even an unbanned one, and it will still work just fine. You do NOT need to reformat it to regain any kind of functionality. Any installed games will need to be reinstalled for the console you want to play them on. This is normal behaviour and happens when swapping HDDs on unbanned/legit 360's.

Windows Media Centre functionality is disabled. It is still possible to stream video/music content via the video library.

Your Gamertag may be corrupted. This does not mean your gamertag has been banned, you can recover it using any live-capable 360, however ANY ACHIVEMENTS YOU HAVE EARNED SINCE BEING BANNED WILL BE LOST. Your gamertag will be corrupted EVERY SINGLE TIME it is used on a banned console. This means you cannot use your banned console to play backups offline just to get achievements - it wont work, the second you put your profile back on a good 360, it will be corrupted and all progress lost. There is no way around this.

The same applies to game saves - if you access a game save on a banned 360, it too will be corrupted when accessed on a legit/unbanned 360! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! There is no way around this, either.

Your XBLA games and DLC will still be valid, however to play them on a different 360 you will need to be signed into Xbox Live. This is normal behaviour on unbanned/legit 360's as well. They may be corrupted and have to be re-downloaded if you attempt to access them on a banned 360. You can transfer all of your downloaded content to a new 360 here: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/licensemigration/default.htm however note that you can only do it once every 12 months.

So, in summary:
Your Banned 360:
* Cannot go on Xbox Live
* Cannot install games to the HDD
* Cannot use Windows Media Centre extender
* Cannot be used to get achievements from backups without corrupting your profile

You cannot do anything about this, short of buying a new 360.

There may be more functionality disabled than mentioned here, things are still being discovered.

The current theories are its all do with jitter correction, jitter signal recieved back from original DVD drive versus modded drive.

Axwell

docentore wrote: »

Also for 99.99% there is no way that they can see if the drive was flashed. There is no such a thing like "bad flash". Its working or you have 200e brick. simple as that.

ixtreme 1.61 isnt gaurenteed 100% safe yet since its only out..that can be considered a bad flash. Even if it installs properly its still early and could have holes in it.

gline

Heard of a few people being banned, seems to be their console auto signs into live when they turn it on and they have an un-released game in the drive. so either turn off auto sign in or unplug your network connection when playing an unreleased title.

But i was wondering, can M$ detect a save-game of an unreleased title? If you connect to live with a savegame of an unreleased title, can they detect that and ban you even if you werent playing that game or have it in your drive at the time?
That would explain why we have a lot of unexplained bannings.