December 3, 2007Update on Nov ‘07 bans, bad security sector; affects Kreon rips
Posted by The Ori
Commodore4eva has noticed a recent change in games with regards to the c/r timings. It appears to have started in games a few weeks before halo 3, that will give a slightly altered Security Sector file when ripped using a kreon drive. We have tried to replicate the error with a samsung drive in 0800 mode with no success. This slightly altered data would be very easy to detect, and would enable microsoft to use as critera for bannings. We believe this is the result of the recent bannings.
We are still not sure if this was a intentional move on Microsoft’s part, or a coincedental bug within kreon. As a side note, kreon will not give this altered data every time, but appears to happen randomly. Here is a list of a few games that appear to have the possibility of giving altered SS data when ripped with kreon:
Halo 3 (Of course)
Mass Effect
Call Of Duty 4 (What most people were playing when banned)
Spiderman friend or foe
Thrillville
Project Gotham Racing 4
NHL 08
Half Life 2 The Orange Box
Oblivion GOTY Edition (released before H3)
This is just a small list so far, but there will be a full list maintained as time goes on.
Kreon, Redline99 and commodore4eva are all involved with this progress, so there will be a solution in the near future, whether its a kreon firmware, XBC, or firmware update to resolve the issue.
If you have recently been banned, and would like to confirm whether one of your backups has a bad kreon SS, please use xdvdmulleter or any other program to extract the SS, and run Kreon Checker (compliments of #Stealth360 on efnet) on the SS, it will tell you whether it is a good or bad kreon rip. We are trying to verify that everyone who was banned had a bad kreon SS. As we find out more, the xdvdmulleter database will be updated to fix any bad Security Sectors on specific games.
i have a bad thrillville but my pgr4 is good,
is it ok to use the thrillville offline???
Doubtful, i heard alot of people just logged in without a game in and they where banned bc M$ logs bad games
Yes, any anomalies are stored for later transmitting. IF a test fails, then they have to know about it, and will be sent the next time you connect.
i have a keron drive but i never got kick off…i use xbc and clone cd and im still online with 2 other pplz in the house using the same game on different disc…….
Hey guys i have the hitachi 79 drive can i mod my system with out the mod ship so far no luck
You need the PassKey or NME Modchip. That is the only way for the 79 series Hitachi.
i did not play any off them games only call of duty 4 i got banned all y mates got banned they only played cod 4 aswell .
the golden compass (pal) is also bad thanks for the tip man!!!
my m8 got banned with cod4 checked his others and found guitar hero 2 and fusion frenzy 2 to be bad rips everything else was fine but he got banned :(
All the most popular and well known scene releases. Halo 3, CoD4, Mass Effect and Orange box…all failed the test.
Thankfully I am already banned and don’t have to worry about this.
i have not been band yet and have had my flashed xbox since the begging of the bans. i think it may just be bad flashes that are having this effect. though i am not sure!
i test my cod4 its not a bad backup so izzit safe to go online withit?
use xdvdmulleter or any other program to extract the SS, and run Kreon Checker
I immediately flashed mine samsung to 1.3 , so far no ban.
I don’t beleive anyone with samsung 1.3 and BenQ 1.1 were banned, all were older versions.
I’ve checked all my discs; COD4, Orange Box, Bioshock,Mass Effect - and they all say Good on kreonchecker. Can I chance the update then or should i do the offline update? I’m still running kreon 0.81 - maybe the latest kreon is causing this??