Xbox dilemma - what to do?

[POOTERMAN]

Your advice please guys. My daughter has an xbox and wants to start using it again. It was flashed with the LT 1.6 firmware about a year ago and hasn't been able to go on xbox live due to her being asked to download the latest dashoard update that will as I understand flash it back to stock firmware and possibly flag it for a ban?.

The thing is she no longer has any 'backups' and just wants to play on her original games but wants to be able to go online again to play on xbox live.

I want to know if it's okay to just download the dashboard update which she's asked to do when she tries to connect to live which will remove the flashed firmware and hopefully then she can start using xbox live again.

What we don't want is for the console to be banned from live!

I don't want to spend ?30 to get it flashed back to stock firmware and if I was going to pay ?30 to get it flashed surely most will have it flashed with the latest 2.0 firmware instead but at present we're told not to go on live until there's a new v3.0 firmware out!

I need to get this console online asap so do you think it would be okay to just download the dashboard update and at least then she can play her original game discs and get back online which is something she hasn't been able to do for months.

Appreciate your thoughts on what to do and hopefully there's a solution that won't cost me anything - hopefully:)

Cheers in advance.

[MrFug]

Do you have the original drive firmware? Safest way would be to flash the original bin file then update your dash.

[POOTERMAN]

no unfortunately I don't have the original drive firmware as it flashed by a shop that closed down recently.

Am I really asking for problems if I just download the dashboard update to be able to get it back to stock firmware?

[martiboy]

No one will tell you if your ok to update or not incase you do or dont get banned. Its always been the first rule to flash your box back to stock even when updating to the latest cfw. Ive connected 2 boxes to live and allowed it to flash my drives back to stock and havent been banned. This is just my personal experience and shouldnt be taken that its ok to do. It realy all depends what you want to do yourself.

[cunny]

It also depends on what fw is on the drive, it was reported older cfw's were causing errors when updating aswell as spoofed drives

Got 1 here that wont update on older fw, im returning to stock then updating the dash, then cfw:)

[felix11]

I know you did not flash the box yourself, but by any chance do you know what make/model of drive is in it? It may be that it is a make/model that is not affected by the dash update (i,e samsung or early Hitachi).

Any chance you could find out? (pull the front cover off and look in the keyhole shaped hole under the dvd drive and tell us what colour wires you see - or if there are no wires at all)

[Delmonte]

If you do the latest dash update it flashes your firmware back to stock as part of the update I read. If you update offline using a usb stick then connect you may be banned, but that would mean you've already been flagged for a ban and there is noway round it.
Do a google for LT+ and the official forums have your question answed more indepth.

[POOTERMAN]

thanks for all the replies guys.

I checked the drive and it has 2 yellow wires which means it's a Liteon. It's an older non-HDMI model that we just want to get back on live which means getting the latest dashboard update.

I guess I can try downloading the update and if it gets banned then that's just the way it is. I was just trying to avoid having to pay ?30 to get it flashed back to stock as I don't have the original drive firmware.

It's a 50/50 gamble I guess but can't see any other alternative?