Update: Potential Fix for 1 Million Banned Xbox 360's Has Arrived

From DailyTech: Every fall Microsoft tends to try to find ways to ban Xbox modders from its Xbox Live service. Microsoft detests modding, as it allows users to accomplish forbidden activities, such as playing backups of games, playing out of zone DVDs, installing alternative operating systems, or playing pirated games.

This holiday season Microsoft has a special surprise in store for "naughty" Xbox 360 hackers -- a particular sweeping ban that relies on spotting modified drive firmware. Rolled out starting last week, the ban, according to sources, blocks the installation of games on the Xbox hard drive, blocks the Windows Media Player media extender, corrupts saves/Gamertags used on the machine, and most significantly prevents the console from accessing Xbox Live.

According to early estimates 600,000 consoles were effected, but more recent estimates put the number at close to 1 million consoles.

Microsoft has suggested that users with banned consoles find another Xbox. However, users with a banned Xbox 360 may not want to throw away their consoles just yet. According to the site 360Mods, c4eva has abandoned work on his Lite-on and Hitachi drive mods to try to establish a workaround.

The new workaround, dubbed iXtreme LT (Light Touch) aims to provide a minimum amount of security checks and aims to make the firmware as close to the stock firmware as possible to prevent detection. This fix may allow modified consoles to return to playing backup discs and other forbidden materials without Microsoft noticing.

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