On the plus side, honest sellers might sell their banned consoles cheaply, which would be great for people who want a 360 but who wouldn’t be using Live anyway. Of course, the intersection of the set of honest people and the set of people who mod their consoles to play pirated games might not be so large.

i want to find a pile of these things and fix them up as high grade ubuntu computers

Imagine like 400 of those in a Beowulf cluster

So, how do we design good games of our own,and leave Tinyflacid Megacorp alone?

These things have been gigantic piles of scrap from the get go! Yet another reason to not waste money on one…

There is no way I’d publish a game for x360 if I owned a studio. You’re guaranteed to lose a lot of money. If I was going to publish on PC I’d use themida or a hardware fob.

Still happily playing my Sega Dreamcast and PC. A 360 just isn’t worth the trouble.

I wonder if I can get some of my $ back for the gold account I can no longer use. And I agree with David. I think they’re just being malicious.

The cost of the lawyer fees would be negligible. In a class action style suit it is not uncommon for the lawyer to work out of pocket and then take a hefty cut of the winnings. However, as Wwhat pointed out, it is a violation of the DMCA to bypass protection and encryption systems. I wouldn’t be surprised if the EFF took up the cause though.

Guess it’s time for someone to reverse engineer the game software and create/setup their own server for it and make some money.

POINT MISSED!

can we please stop arguing the moral rightness of pirates/microsoft in this debacle? its moot. What does matter is that there is a flood of perfectly good hardware out there for the enterprising few to buy up and put to good use.

Like someone said, beowulf. or an ubuntu based MediaCenter. Theres gotta be more use for these, even if banned.

how long till a tool comes out to enable XBMC support? its only a matter of time.

does lan play still function on banned systems? if so, i would put together lan parties and shit (sans ms licencing).

also, heres a plethora of spare parts for your busted system. I know swapping the DVD drive requires flashing, even if piracy is not the intention, but theres gotta be uses for these systems.

I was actually thinking of buying one of these because I don’t really care that it is banned. If I want to play a game online I will buy the PC version and I don’t really like any of the exclusive titles that are big online (Halo 3, Gears of War, etc.). They are selling for so cheap too, I found a ton of them in the 60-80 dollar range. I already have a media center pc set up and everything too so there is really no downside for me.

twistedsymphony, i agree with your points but i think you may be looking at this from a fixed perspective. While it isn’t easy to mod an 360, it is still a powerful piece of hardware for the price. Now that there are dirt cheap systems floating around that are “crippled”, those interested in the hardware rather than the software will be able to experiment more easily. For $100, a banned 360 is still one hell of a machine, even if it can’t play games. I tend to agree that the system really isn’t worth hacking, but only if you want it for the intended purpose of playing games.
I think M$ will soon realize that they have opened pandora’s box. People are more willing to experiment with stuff that is already broken. So if a killer app (like XMBC) comes out that actually has people buying consoles with the intent of using for a purpose other than playing XBOX360 games, M$ will lose a huge chunk of change (assuming they still lose money on hardware sales).

@ the letter d

I guess I never really thought of it that way…

I suppose with the market flooded with cheap hardware it’s worth picking up just to experiment with … now you’ve got me thinking :D

Correction: M$ would lose $350.5 million in a suit, not $950.5 mil.

I will either keep my banned box or trade it to someone who doesn’t go online….I might keep it. With all of these banned boxes I expect to see some cool mods or uses.

I bought 90% of my games so its a shame I got banned but I knew the risks.

I bet Microsoft didnt ban xbox live accounts so that they didnt drive people away from their consoles and hopes to increase sales for the holidays.

The only mods I have made to my xb360 are hardware mods. No flashing or softmodding. I have modded just about every console Ive ever owned except the xb360 because the huge waste of money it would pose if MS decided to do this very thing. It’s sad that they would do this to a community that is hell bent on modding there consoles. I would go as far to say that a little less than half the 360 population are modders whether it be soft/hard and this is really going to hurt console sales as I think many people will simply say “fuck you MS” and go with PS3 where you can play mplayer for free.

Tyler what you said is a good point. I’m not sure what is involved in obtaining the information you need from the legit 360, but could it be possible to use a dead 360 that is out of warranty? If the box is dead (or dying) a clever person could snatch up a banned box and replace its identifying information with that of the dead/dying box.

(I realize this all sounds very ambiguous and theoretical but I don’t own a 360 and lack the knowledge to discredit this thought)

yea i havent been banned i left my 360 offline for a while and was waiting for mw2. im waiting to see what comes of the research of the ban wave. so luckly i caught the forums before plugging it in, i bought a mw2 console set just to have a newer 360. mny orig 360 was from feb 06 and never went rrod.

how do you access the kv file?

HAHA i have a Hitachi drive so im safe!

guys, why dont he banned of you buy one console together flahs the keyfiles on all of them and use your consoles again, without hacks, so everyone is fine with 100 bucks
unless microsoft bans the id because of multibe entries

i was banned week before last, brought new xbox wednesday just gone, reflashed it and signed up another live account, run mw2 through abgx360 let it do its business, rewrote the image and within 24hrs was barred again. took xbox back and said its not compatible with my requirements got a refund and brought another one. have flashed it but kept it offline until liteon lite touch is released. in the mean time i did some thinking now that i have spare time on my hands(banned) ”so long story short i thought to myself well my xbox lan can still connect so why not setup my own game server so atleast my and my family could still play together online. after some exstensive reading i came across this website
Code:

http://www.teamxlink.co.uk/

who had already beet me to it. i can now play cod4 mw1/2 plus many many others online with other people across the world just like i could on xbox live, i had doubts and thought 1) it would be difficult to setup 2) it would be slow n sh*t.. how wrong was i. its great just like xbl ..

here are a few steps to be online in 10mins.
but first you need the following things:
1:desktop pc with internet access(i used my laptop as it was easier
2: a wrouter
3: a xbox 360/ or psp and many other consoles. banned or not it dont matter
4: a internet connection (your reading this so you have one)

STEP 1:basicaly you put rj45 cable from xbox 360 to router, you put rj45 cable from laptop/desktop to router. you put rj45 cable from modem to router, so basicaly same principles as streaming movies from laptop to xbox360. goto your xbox dash and check network connetions to make sure your xbox can see and connect to your pc, because everybody has differnt hardware im not going to go into too much detail about how to network your xbox. you will have to disable any firewalls etc etc. once you establish a connection from xbox to laptop then move onto step 2

STEP 2: goto
Code:

http://www.teamxlink.co.uk/

and download 7.4.18 xlink kai software. install software then return to
Code:

http://www.teamxlink.co.uk/

and click sign up link, you need to make an account but dont worry its completly free..

step 3 goto start menu/xlink kai/ and run the config check through the settings select the network adapter you are using( it maybe possible to use wirelss but i had trouble so hardwired) put in your username and password. change any options you think may suit you. save it an exit.

step 4: start kai user interface and in the top left hand corner you should have a little magnifier icon click this and it will give you a diagnostic of your connection you want to look where it says connection reachable = if you get a YES then your home and dry and ready to play. if it doesnt say yes unfortunatly you have done something wrong try posting your problems here and as a community we can help solve issues. if it does say yes then goto step 5

STEP 5: log into a local arena, ive only tried europe/uk rooms i dont see why it wont connect else where, but there has always been games available to play so not needed to try any others, once you have found a room with a few players online, insert your mw2(for instance) and goto multiplayer mode. then goto system link and join game, a list of available games will be presented, join and away you go, online gaming on all banned consoles lol
you can set up hosts games or join already running games.. its 2:38am sunday and theres plenty of games online, my gf is playing it as we speak…

sorry if this tut is a little hard to understand but ive only just joined it tonite so a little cloudy as to what to do myself, but i can promise you, you will be online gaming in under 15mins.

please share this information to anyone who is banned, the more poeple who join the more fun we can all have…also sorry for any spelling mistake, am rushing it so i can get back online..

^^^^SPAM^^^^^^

also, to Ho0d0o/Heatgap who said “I would go as far to say that a little less than half the 360 population are modders” Are you fucking retarded? That’s the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Almost half? More like less than 2% you fucking idiot.

What does it require to get the .kv? Would getting that necessarily void warranty on an xbox 360? I’m just wondering if you could buy a new xbox, get the .kv from it, flash that into your old one, and then return the original. If enough people did that, then microsoft would probably have to change something to keep people from buying totally new banned xbox 360, earning a lot of bad rep.

Of course chances are what they’d do is tell Walmart and everyone else to stop accepting returns of xbox 360s.

@Irish
As many identical units as you can get. That’s why it’s called a “Beowulf cluster”.

@Misfitsman805:

They only ban the console as far as I know. Your account is safe and I believe you can just move the account over to a different 360. That is what I have read, in any case. And +1 for the Xbox Connect mentioned above; although I think even if you can’t sign onto LIVE you can still do LAN games, no?

I’m a little surprised at how many people are complaining about what MS have done. When you think about how much piracy has and could damage the console’s profitability and future (as so much profit is made through games), Microsoft, as a business, had to act. Fair cop I say.

If I had a banned box, I’d probably keep it for cheap single player games and modding. I’d eventually buy another for online play. For all of the people who paid to have their box modded and said “£60 saved me £hundreds!”, investing another £150 is hardly the end of the world. The worse thing is that they will have to pay for games they want to play online, like everybody else.

I’m goin the Ben Heck route and building a new 360 laptop. Up until now I couldn’t justify ripping apart my perfectly good (xbox live capable) 360. So being the optimist that I am, I’m actually looking forward to the next couple months of 360 hacking mayhem!!! At least all have the coolest 360 at the lan party.

@Maddox I don’t understand the 50%chance thing? It’s either banned or not, same as it either working or not. If you mean second hand consoles, then you find out if it’s banned or not before you buy it.

The PS3′s free online is a huge advantage, but one that has been there since day one. This shouldn’t change anything.

Microsoft seems to be seeeing how far they can go with their stupidity before getting sued.
I very surprised their banning offline features has not gotten them busted under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty act.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson%E2%80%93Moss_Warranty_Act
Turning off the media center and HD functions is a clear violation as this is effectively self destructing hardware you own.
No matter what they write in the EULA should not allow this level a scumtastic behavior.

@Danukeru I expect that a new hack will soon be available that will be harder for MS to identify, but who would go there now knowing that MS are actively seeking ways to ban modded consoles?

As I am aware, the hacks are based on firmware on the DVD drive. If MS can retrieve response time, who knows what they can retrieve? Firmware file size? Date written? The firmware itself?

I think the 360 is better left untouched unless you don’t mind buying another in the future.

Hats off to Sony who allow users to install their own operating systems, no modding necessary.

It’s what you get for purchasing from a company that has a proprietary hardware AND software platform. This is why you don’t want Microsoft branded PCs.

They’ll probably find a way to get linux on the banned consoles soon esp now that the hardware to experiment on can be had nearly free.

“Even with the hack you still need the disk (or backup) to play, and for most games the loading time isn’t even reduced.”

@Wolf: I read an article on this way back. It’s to ensure a “consistent experience” when playing from DVD or HDD.

Intentional! :P

@LycaonGrunt – the HDD installs was introduced as part of the NXE and is available on any new game. Therefore it’s an additional feature offered by standard dashboard updates and comes as standard on all new consoles.

Just a point about functionality of banned boxes: Unless you’d retrieved the CPU key prior to kernel 8498 (back in late July/August), at present there’s nothing you can do in terms of running a XeLL exploit for linux etc.

@Banned by bill – yes, Tunneling will work to a certain degree. However MS are extremely smart and learned from their previous mistakes with the original Xbox.

If you’re playing a LAN game (either locally or via tunneling), you need to have a ping less than 30ms in order for it to connect. It’s a moot point that you can connect to an XBL game with a ping twice as high, but MS did this to ensure that only local matches could be set up. You’d be able to connect to someone in your street, or possibly a few blocks away but don’t make any plans in connecting to someone over a larger distance.

@Nexy: Yes, a WODE for Xbox. Probably handy to use a 2-port SATA phy or something. Myself has only done low-speed data modification. A nice challenge.

@Marty: Don’t know what kind of ping they test, otherwise just insert fake response times. But they probably measure on the long run.

@Marty – The sad fact is you’ll need a Live account to obtain that service via Xbox Live. So it–right or wrong–MS’s TOS that is agreed to when connecting to Live gives them the right to disable that feature.

@Dennis Booth – The Terms of Service for *Xbox Live* I am not talking about anything to do with buying the 360 and using it at home, I am talking about the TOS you agree to on Xbox Live.

I am not mad that they banned me (I was only ever a silver member…and I have over $500 in downloaded content just for Rock Band, Quitar Hero etc…). I am mad that they crippled my box to the point that I can’t even use the extender…something that was inherent to the xbox.

I mean, they SAY it is to maintain the integrity of Live…fine. So be it. Ban me from Live. I don’t f’ing care…but do not crippled the functionality of my machine. Chevy didn’ limit be to 100km/h after putting a performance chip in my truck! They very well may void the warranty but they don’t cripple what they sold me!

Yup, my 360 is banned from LIVE which initially did not bother me as much since I do NOT do any online gaming. I do however like to download demos, trailers and PURCHASE ARCADE GAMES.

Being banned from playing online is one thing and I completely understand BUT, to ban someone willing to pay money for games only available for download makes me just scratch my head and shrug my shoulders.

many years ago, in a land far, far away, there was a company that tried to clean off your hard drive if you violated some terms of their license, the courts (US) ruled it was illegal to damage the property of the owner, they could make the software un-usable, but erasing the drive was not legal. Had some thing to do with the right of ownership. I see where microsquirt can ban the online version, but not to the point of making the entire console un-usable. Since you buy the equipment and not lease/rent it.

Called the M$ support and they said that they have saved my gamertag. Hell Yeah!! go fuck with my gamertag M$ i am not gonna buy your new crap 360. XBL get lost, XBC, xlink i am coming!! But yeah i miss the feature of installing games to hard disk. My friends, do you know any way to get it back??

I am looking for a dead x360 to reverse engineer.
We shall see. . . .
Dr.Booth@gmail.com

How about hitting Microsuck where it hurts and just not buy the Xbox in the first place?

“The functionality being removed from banned 360s are services received via Xbox Live. As such any EULA violating systems can and will have functions related to Xbox Live withdrawn or suspended.

Secondly… Nitori could you elaborate one what the Warranty Act you referenced has to do with anything?

Posted at 1:10 pm on Nov 18th, 2009 by LycaonGrunt”

–
So what your saying is, even though I bought said 360 from Walmart/Bestbuy etc, opened it up hooked it up to my TV, but never used XBL by not hooking it up to my network to allow it to go online. That all these features that are ORIGINALLY available on the 360 out of the box, W/O ever being connected to XBL is conisidered by your standards something that M$ can and you say are “Allowed” to do if they so please to disable once you do connect to XBL? I have never hooked up my 360 to the internet no need for me to in the first place, I find paying 60$ for a game, and end up having to spend another exorbitant amount of money just so I can play that game on there XBL, to get a chance to play with others. No thanks, thats what my PS3 is for and for that fact thats what my PC is for.

And on a off note about piracy: Developers/Programmers are paid for the finished product in “FULL” before and after the game is made. As I understand it they don’t get any what you would say “Royalties” for every item sold. The companies(meaning the ones who are givien full right to press and write finished program onto a disc, put inside a container with a flashy cover) that keep getting paid are the ones who sell the finished product through there distributors, the only ones who arent being paid and are on a risk basis are the stores who buy them in bulk, and hope someones buys them before they have to start dropping there prices and ultimately removing them for a loss off there shelves.

@angst

“I’m not sure how they are doing this”

Multiple XBox 360s connected simultaneously with the same ID would most likely be the case. I would imaging they are actively looking for that and autobanning if detected.

I just bought a 360 from a guy who said it only had a “disk read error”, when I got home and popped the HD off, I see, in bog green letters “NO LIVE” written in marker. Luckily, I only spent $30 on it and only intended to use it for a school report visual aid.(I didn’t want to void my warranty on my elite” I attend TTU and major in EE and have been assigned a “widget deconstruction” paper and presentation. I was planning to fix the disk drive and let my g/f play her games on it but not I’m not sure if it was banned or is simply modded and “no live” was intended as a warning (Im prob not that lucky). Either way, it is very tempting to re-purpose the hardware and see what I can hack out of it, nce I’d only be out $30.

hmm…
Just wait until someone comes up with a hardware based cheat that doesen’t modify the 360, such as a box that plugs into the video output and controller :)

Hey….Theres some pretty conflicting info on the internet about his ban!!! Seems like the April 2010 update re-enables the HDD………………………Well, about the ban ppl said that MCE functionality is also disabled…I haven’t bought Xbox yet but am going to mod it and use it as a media extender…..If I do get banned will I be able to play audio/video content from Media Center…And will I be able to use MCE Browser then??? And run other online MCE plugins such as MCE Twitter Client on a banned xbox 360??