Reader Question: What To Do After Xbox 360 Is Banned From Xbox Live
Are you still playing pirated games over Live on your modded Xbox 360? One Gamersworldbd reader just had his console banned from Xbox Live and can’t install games to his 360 hard drive anymore. Here’s the email:
Recently my Xbox 360 got banned from Xbox Live and i cant play online games. I bought my [modded] Xbox from Dhaka and i also use normal 300 Taka discs. Moreover, after the ban, i also can’t install games on the hard drive of Xbox 360. I need solution from this and want to play Xbox Live again. – Ali Faruque
There are a couple of things I want to clear.
What can I do with my Xbox 360 after being banned
Firstly (which is most obvious) you cannot connect to Xbox Live from your banned 360 anymore and play games online. You cannot receive any more game updates, dashboard/console updates, etc. Furthermore, you also cannot browse the Xbox Live Marketplace, Netflix, video streams, etc.
You can continue to play games offline with your Xbox 360 but cannot install games to the hard drive. Windows Media Center Extender functionality is also disabled.
What about my Gamertag, save games and achievements?
Your Gamertag is likely not banned (if it is, Microsoft will send you an email stating the reason). Which means you can get a new console and start playing with your previous Gamertag.
Your save game is corrupted. If you transfer your save game on a new (un-banned) 360, it just won’t work. You can still use your save games on the banned console, but not transfer it to a new one.
You can restore your Gamertag (and achievements) by using the recover Gamertag/profile function in a new console. All achievements earned prior to being banned will be lost. If you use your (recovered) Gamertag on a banned console, it will become corrupted.
A Word About DLCs
If you’ve purchased downloadable contents (movies, game expansions, map packs, etc.) from Xbox Live, they are tied to your Gamertag. You can transfer the DLCs to a new Xbox 360 and after signing in with your Gamertag, they should work. You can also permanently transfer the DLCs to the new console by using Microsoft’s Transferring Content Licenses To A New Console.
Can I Restore Functionality To Install Games to 360 Hard Drive?
Short and easy answer? No. After being banned, the hard drive is locked and you cannot install new games to the hard drive. If you previously had games installed on the hard drive, it will not work.
That said, there is a workaround. You can flash the NAND chip of your Xbox 360 but you need a backup of it before the console was banned. Since most users don’t, this is simply not an option. If you’re willing to try it out, here is a tutorial on how to backup your 360 NAND chip.
What is the NAND chip?
The NAND chip is unique to every Xbox 360 console. Among other things, it saves information of every game you play and sends it to Xbox Live for analysis. That’s how the ban occurs. Xbox Live reads that a pirated game was played and bans the console. Because each NAND chip is unique, using another person’s backup (if you can find it) will not work.
I hope this information helps and always be careful. If you simply must play over Live on a modded 360, make sure you have the “stealth mode” active on your mod chip.
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Jan 13th, 2010 at 10:47 pm
but there are many ways,on how to not get banned on xbox live.if one follows it,he/she will never get banned ! & i always prefer to download a game if u r using a modded xbox 360,instead of buying those pirated discs.as u can’t check the stealth & verification test on those discs.cus they r already burned.But if u download a game,u get the chance to check the stealth & verification test through abgx 360.that’s why i always download a game,then check the stealth & verification test myself & then just burn it on a blank dual-layer dvd disc(DVD+R DL).This simple method reduces the chance of getting banned from xbox live.I think,everyone who has a modded xbox 360 should follow this method.& it’s not so hard also !
All u need is-
1.A pc with windows OS
2.A Dual-layer DVD Burner
3.Dual-layer blank disc &
4.A fast internet connection(which is almost a rare thing in bd)
A slow internet connection will also work but will take time ! by doing this,chances of getting banned from xbox live is almost 75% reduced !
Jan 14th, 2010 at 10:57 am
@sng425
Wow bro, that’s some really useful information. Thanks!
Jan 16th, 2010 at 1:43 am
@ Mushfiq,
My scenerio is different in this sense that I never have gotten the chance to connect my modded (ixtreme 1.51) X3 to XBL. For over a year, I am playing games and my Achievement is 9600. I have no interest in playing games online, I mean on XBL.
What I want to know, I want to connect to XBL just to let Microsoft record my achievement score. At this situation, do you think I can do that?
@sng425,
Bro, my net speed is really really slow, I have only the pirated disc games. Is there anyway so that abgx 360 can check the stealth & verification test of the discs?
Thanks & Regards,
Jan 16th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
@Reza
i m sorry,but there is no way to check the stealth check & verification test after burnig the disc….u will have to do it b4 burning it….& as far as u r playing offline there is no need to check the stealth & verification test…
btw…what download speed do u get?i get over 30-40 kiloByte on off peak hour(midnight)…..
Jan 16th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
@ Reza
I wouldn’t connect to Live if I were you because there is a chance that you can get banned. As soon as you connect to Live, the NAND chip uploads all your console’s details. You can lose the ability to install games to your hard drive. And since you don’t have any wish to play online, why take the risk?
But if u want to try it just for the sake of gamerscores, do it. A quick connect and disconnect will result in no harm.
Jan 16th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
@ sng425, Thanks,
Mine is GP Internet and its speed sucks in Mohammadpur- Iqbal Road…..I think I do not need to tell anything else…
@Mushfiq,
Thanks for the advices, I wont do this for as long as it runs fine. May be I’ll do it when I am to get a new console, I’ll remove the modchip, flash the firmware to it’s original, uninstall all the games, delete the saved game files, and connect to XBL for only the first and last time (quickly) using the current X3 to get my achievements stored on XBL.
Another thing can be done-but it’s expensive and may not sound practical enough- gettin another 60 GB unmodded X3 with select original games (like NFS, Fifa, Modern Warfare etc) to have safe and clean journey on XBL…
Cause I hope soon in future the ping time situation in our pathetic broadband services will improve as well as the speed, so I should consider playing online with the advent of these blesses…
Jan 16th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
@Reza
You can try this but I’m not sure whether it will work. Copy your game profile to a 360 memory card. Transfer it to an unmodded 360 (maybe your friends’) and sign in to Xbox Live.
Jan 16th, 2010 at 7:25 pm
I sure will try that…it sounds more trickier to me…
Jan 27th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Ok, I decided to buy a memory card and thinking about transferring the game profile along with saved games to the memory card, so that if I buy a new X3 next time I just have to transfer ‘em from the memory card to the new X3’s HDD. As it is tough to transfer contents from one HDD to another.
Just wondering if I transfer the profile and saved game contents will the achievements also be moved to the memory card?
As far as I am concerned Microsoft is now able to detect the flashed drive of your X3 whether you play the game or not. So, I do not to riskying my X3 to connect it to XBL.
I, however, connected ma X3 to internet and it downloaded to a small update. But I stopped to that point.
Have connected both PS 3 and X3 to internet- and I seen X3 has slightly faster DL speed than PS 3.
Jan 27th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
to clear a confusion- what do I mean by XBL and internet- well, it’s not separate thing- you can dl stuffs, communicate and do such things only through XBL. But first time you connect your X3 it’ll dl an update before you join/signup to XBL.
Jan 27th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
@ Reza
I’m really sorry, but to prevent cheating I don’t think you can transfer profiles from one 360 to another using a memory card. You can transfer save games, but it will not unlock achievements/gamerscores (this is to prevent people from amassing huge gamerscore).
The only way is to upload your gamer profile from the original console. And if u want to play on another 360, use the recover gamertag/profile from Xbox Live feature.
Just connect the hard drive to another (un-modded) console and you can upload gamertag then. Even I’m not 100% sure, and MS can’t detect flashed hard drive. It only bans third-party hard drives (eg. high-capacity hard drives from Nyko).
Jan 28th, 2010 at 12:30 am
Okay, so here we go:
When I buy a new console (unmodded), I have to connect the present one’s HDD to that new console, upload the gamer profile, remove that HDD, reconnect the new one’s HDD, and then I can mod the new console..is it the process bro?
Jan 29th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
@Reza
That’s pretty much it. And please let us know how it turns out. That will be really useful for Gamersworldbd readers.
Feb 14th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
I was banned from xbox live on the november 2009, i had more than 2 months of gold subscription left on it and i also know why i got caught. PICTURE – http://i45.tinypic.com/vh9pw5.jpg
The above screenshot shows what you get for the first time, when are banned.
Basically after getting banned i sold my banned 360 to my cousin who doesnt mind playing offline and with no hdd support, also my previous 360 was a jasper. I bought a 2nd 360 this time an arcade with a much later production date (still a jasper), snapped on my old 20gb hdd (i have had for 2 years!!) and BAAM my profile (which got banned, had all saves and highest achievement) got corrupted meaning i couldnt play with it.
microsoft corrupts the banned profile so that you cannot play with that profile on any other console. There are two ways you can uncorrupt our GAMERTAG/PROFILE.
method 1: The hard disk mod – very complicated and kind of risky. Requires sata ports and hdd disassembly. (i did mine using this)
method 2: Gamertag recovery, you can recover your corrupt gamertag by deleting the corrupt profile not the items just the profile. And recovering it xbox live, this makes you loose any achievement you earned since the ban.
hope all this information helps more people understand what happens when and if you get banned. I currently go online with the new iXtreme LT. And just to show my gamertag is up and running with the latest games and achievements i am including a pic of it after updating it from xbox live.
@Reza you can refresh your achievement score by installing apps on facebook,iphone or igoogle. But fb has the best apps! Check mine out you will get an understanding how it looks.
GAMERTAG SCREENSHOT – http://i50.tinypic.com/fbynv9.jpg
Mar 9th, 2010 at 11:58 am
hi every one i have a good news for u you you can unban your xbox 360 and play live again just go to youtube and search for video c4eva hope this help annd if u like subscribe to my account which is abflame22