Xbox Hacking

Hacking my xbox is a question that has come up a number of times. There is the obvious reason, enable playing of pirated games, but I'm just not into that. But when I look at how my buddy has converted his xbox into a suh-weet media center, then I start to really think about it.

But not for long. I always decide that it isn't for me. "Why?" you ask.

Consider this: Microsoft has explicitly stated that they'll disable Xbox Live if they discover the box is hacked. My impression is that this isn't just for that box, but for your gamertag, and quite likely for any account trying to use that credit card. Heck, they could even go and disable it for anything associated with your MSN Passport login. They have a number of bits of information about "you" which can interrupt your use of Xbox Live quite permanently without some effort on your part.

I haven't blogged about the 360 much here (yet), but its integration with Xbox Live is brilliant. Live is always there. Last night, I spent three hours playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. The entire time, I was on voice chat with my buddy while he played. The game is single player only, but the two of us could talk about what we were doing, what we found that was cool, or simply be quiet while engaging in heavy combat.

Do I want to risk that? Not a chance. Without Live support, the 360 would be a ghost of its real self.

Xbox modding can be nice, but the potential cost is just too much for me. Be careful out there.

9 comments:

virtuadept said...

If I decided to mod my Xbox, I would just never hook it up to Live again, period. I would have a separate, non-modded Xbox that I would use for playing over Live. I still haven't decided if I want to spend the cash to mod an Xbox or not, though. I doubt I would do much with it, I don't even play my Xbox that much anymore. If I wanted to play emulators I could do that on my PC.

Anonymous said...

Many Xbox chips have a switch on the outside that DISABLE the chip and allows you to log onto xbox live and play your games. Also newer chips have code that block xbox live even from working on your modded xbox so if your console attempts to speak with XBL it will throw back an error.

I've seen people use their box other then playing ill gotten games, Xbox Media Center is a nice APP, get Linux running on it and put myth pc on your xbox there you've got a DVR.

I'd highly recommend checking out www.xbox-scene.com and reading up. there is no reason to be afraid of your xbox being banned on live,

Your gamer tag isn't banned your eeprom is banned, I bought a new one and was back on live with in minutes. (I have an older chip)

Plus I bought an xbox 360 I was able to sign in with my current gamertag and I've had no issues.

I agree with you not hacking xbox 360, Live is way to intergrated and you feel that your missing out on alot without it. Plus it's early yet and you mess up you've got a 400 dollar paper weight.

Anonymous said...

My xbox is modded and I play Xbox Live all the time. On my mod, you can turn it off or on as you please. So when I go on Live I turn it off, when I play pirated games, I turn it on. I have every nintendo, genesis, super nintendo, neo geo, nintendo 64, and xbox game on my modded xbox. I also have Linux on there and about 100 Gigs worth of music. I made a USB keyboard and mouse to integrate with my xbox so that I can use it as a regular computer whenever I want. I have a hacked hard drive full of stuff, and a regular hard drive. So when I go on xbox live my xbox modd is off and I'm using a normal hard dtive, so there is no detection. I've had my xbox hacked for 3 years now or more. I know many ppl who have mods that actually can go on xbox live WITH pirated games, undetected. Just some info...

Anonymous said...

Ohh yeah, I forgot to mention, I used to get banned from xbox live many many many times, but they don't ban your gamertag, why would they? They want your money. They only ban your eeprom and hard drive serial code. Which are both replacable for about $10 total.

Anonymous said...

I've been looking for people, or places to modify my xbox, but I just can't seem to find anything. Do you have any suggestions on how to find somewhere or someone who would be able to do this for me?

Anonymous said...

so your saying if i get banned my gamertag can still work just i need to get a new eeprom? and what is an eeprom

Anonymous said...

can someone post a link as to where I can buy a chip that turns on and off...thanx

Anonymous said...

search google for xbox-scene, everything you need to know is on there

Anonymous said...

Dude your gonna get banned. Don't do it!