i have never been banned, i have not tried to login to xbl since october and i currently own 3 xbox systems. basically, i was waiting for halo 2 when all this banning business started and that extended my wait. after reading tum's post(in gumba's very long thread), i realized i am in a very similar situation and i am willing to try xbl again.
where to begin, hmmm. lets start with the boxes...
xbox #1
halo se 1.4
purchased from ebgames
first xbl login was march or april 2004
added smartxx via pinheader in may 2004
bios is x2 version 4983.06
loaded 120gb hd - locked w/smartxx 3311
last xbl login was in early october
stock hd st310014ace is locked, uninstalled and untouched
xbox #2
black 1.0
purchased from etoys/kbtoys
first xbl login was back in 2002
added xenium via pinheader in may 2004
removed chip in june to check for clone(chip is still removed, but pinheader & d0 are still installed)
loaded 30gb hd(i have no access to this data) - locked w/ xos 1.1
last xbl login was in late june - tested in order to make sure it worked after removal of clone chip
stock hd st310211a is locked, uninstalled and untouched
xbox #3
stock 1.3
purchased from dell
xbl virgin
it has been turned on once to test
both xbox #1 & #2 were modded after first xbl login and each have their stock eeprom.
due to a very long vacation with my wife and kids, i did not login to xbl between late june and the release of sw battlefront in september.
when i finally did login, i had to grab a dashboard update and i specifically remember when i played again the next day, after using my chip for various purposes in between, that i had to grab the same update. in fact, this may have occurred a 3rd time, but i honestly do not remember for sure.
i guess i played battlefront on xbl up until about a month ago, when a certain 27 day leak occurred. after that, i felt it was best to stay away from xbl for awhile since i figured some drastic steps would be taken by m$ and i was hoping to avoid it.
i have no reason to believe that xbl expects me to have a different hd in xbox #1 since i have successfully played on xbl within the last 5 weeks.
that is where i am now... except after the last few days of reading, i think i could be banned already and in that case, maybe i can at least be useful while i am getting banned messages.
i think it is clear that the best step for xbox #1 is to keep it as i have it right now and see if i can play halo 2 on xbl succesfully. however, should i remove my gt from the system and use a 2 month trial, or is my gt already flagged(since i played on xbl in october)? i have not read enough about this yet and i will do some searching.
i also think that it might be best to test xbox #2 with the stock hd first since an xbl login using xbox #1 might possibly get xbox #1 banned(which would also get my gt flagged).
input from any of you who have been active in regards to this subject is very much appreciated. after we have kicked it around, i will put whatever seems to be the best course of action to the test.
if either xbox #1 or #2 gets banned, then i will leave xbox #3 as is...
This post has been edited by STICKY_BUD: Nov 15 2004, 06:22 AM