You wouldn't believe this given my forum name... but I just got a used 360 last week that I couldn't pass up on.... It will be a good deal with all the stuff even if the 360 itself doesn't last that long... Believe it or not I was also actually at the special Zero Hour launch event and havn't had a 360 until now (I decided to upgrade projectors first).

So, my question is about Live and how to get updates. I don't have broadband, so I won't be on Live - bummer. However, I understand that every 360 owner gets a free Silver account. Is that tied to the Xbox somehow?

NOTE - Part of what made this a good deal is that something is wrong with the ethernet port apparently - so this 360 can't connect. So, what I'm wondering is if I can just take the hard drive over to someone else's place and put it on their 360 temporarily and use a memory card with my Silver Live account to download updates/demos to the hard drive. Then take it back and put it on mine. Would that work? Would I even need the memory card or could the other guy just use his Live account?

Man, there are SO many games.... I'm looking forward to Gears, Halo3, Mass Effect, GRAW2, and quite a few others...(maybe Dead Rising) and the Half-Life "5-pack"!!! Yes! It came with Kameo and Blazing Angels but I might just trade those in.

I still intend to get a new 360, but I'm hoping this one lasts a while. I'm holding out for maybe a Halo3 bundle or an Elite or the new hardware/vaporware...

NOTE - Part of what made this a good deal is that something is wrong with the ethernet port apparently - so this 360 can't connect.

If it's just the Ethernet port, then you should still be able to connect with the wireless adapter if you care enough to go that route. That is, if you have WiFi near where the 360 is hooked up.

Welcome to the club!

You can download updates (for games) on someone else's console for sure using your hard drive, but beyond that I'm not sure; someone here will know. I will say that you should keep kameo though, and at least give it a play through. It's a fun game, and it has some excellent graphics to go with it. Enjoy, it's looking to be a good fall for 360 owners! :)

I know that you can access Live with Silver accounts, and most of the updates are user independant (they sign you off before updating), so it would make perfect sense to take the HD drive to a friends house and it should update. I am not sure if you can update via DVD drive (?maybe burn data on a CD rom and then update), it would make sense that you should be able to do this as not everyone has internet.

You should be able to download demo's etc and if small enough the memory card (especially the newer 512Meg) would work. The only problem is that I think some things (such as arcade games) may not be movable. (Don't download on your friends hard drive and then try and copy to yours as it will not work). make sure that you are signed in and your harddrive gets the information.

You really need to get an internet connection for gamming as the best part of most game sis online.

You can't download arcade games and demos (right?) without a gold account, btw



Edit: scratch that, realized I've actually done this before, haha. :confused:

Interesting. Oddly, the friend I bought it from has had this one over at my place for system link with my original Xbox and it works that way.... So it's apparently just something about connecting to the internet. I don't really get it but I don't have broadband anyway, so it really doesn't matter. I'm just looking for a work-around to get the updates. Can core systems get updates to the dashboard without a hard drive?

Can core systems get updates to the dashboard without a hard drive?

Yes... sign in at xbox.com and do a search for "Get System Updates for Your Xbox 360". There's a download to burn a CD or DVD from your computer that you put in your 360 to update it.

Ok, so it sounds like the updates are like flashing some kind of ROM chip. So just taking my hard drive over to someone else's Xbox could let me get demos, but not likely updates (since it would try to update HIS console right there). In fact, if his console was already current, it probably wouldn't even prompt for an update, despite a different hard drive being used. Sounds like the burned CD from Xbox.com will be a good way to go. But at least I can get some good download freebies once in a while anyway. I also get the OXM discs every month and sometimes I think they may put updates on those - not sure about that.

Looking forward to HD gaming!

Ok, so it sounds like the updates are like flashing some kind of ROM chip. So just taking my hard drive over to someone else's Xbox could let me get demos, but not likely updates (since it would try to update HIS console right there). In fact, if his console was already current, it probably wouldn't even prompt for an update, despite a different hard drive being used. Sounds like the burned CD from Xbox.com will be a good way to go. But at least I can get some good download freebies once in a while anyway. I also get the OXM discs every month and sometimes I think they may put updates on those - not sure about that.

Looking forward to HD gaming!

Correct. The dashboard updates go to FLASH memory onboard.
Backwards compatibility and game updates go to the HD.
So you need to go the CD route.
Although, some of the Official XBOX Mag disks reportedly have updates on them.

[QUOTE=here are SO many games.... I'm looking forward to Gears, Halo3, Mass Effect, GRAW2, and quite a few others...(maybe Dead Rising) and the Half-Life "5-pack"!!! Yes! It came with Kameo and Blazing Angels but I might just trade those in./QUOTE]

Kameo is actually pretty good game. Give it a try before trading it in. One of the best looking launch games for the Xbox 360.

no broadband? wtf? you gotta have it yo

You could also go with a usb ethernet adapter. But yeah man. Get broadband if you can. Its the other half of all the fun the 360 has to offer!

Don't buy arcade games unless it's your system with your drive attached. If you put it on your friends system and buy some, you'll be SOL playing them on yours without being connected.

Dashboard updates are included on game discs or can be burned from a download. Most videos are readily available online at gaming sites.

Do they make gig memory cards yet? Otherwise, most of the demos wont fit on card.

If you have a modem connection to the internet, you could always bridge the XBox to the internet through your computer. Wouldn't be very fast, but you could probably download some games. Most of them are only 50MB max.

So, I finally "jumped in"




you'll probably have to jump in atleast 4 more times before you get a working 360 :D

^^

Not everybody has sh***y luck with the 360.

^^

Not everybody has sh***y luck with the 360.


yeah..........OK :cool:

yeah..........OK :cool:

Indeed. :mad:

Ok, so it sounds like the updates are like flashing some kind of ROM chip. So just taking my hard drive over to someone else's Xbox could let me get demos, but not likely updates (since it would try to update HIS console right there). In fact, if his console was already current, it probably wouldn't even prompt for an update, despite a different hard drive being used. Sounds like the burned CD from Xbox.com will be a good way to go. But at least I can get some good download freebies once in a while anyway. I also get the OXM discs every month and sometimes I think they may put updates on those - not sure about that.

Looking forward to HD gaming!
If you've got a buddy with broadband internet, instead of just bringing your xbox360 HDD over to his house, why not just bring your whole xbox360 over to his house and hook it up to his network? If he already has a xbox360, it's even easier - unplug your xbox, bring it to his house, unplug his xbox360, plug yours in.

G-Bull, part of what made this a good deal for the price ($160 for everything) is the fact that apparently his NIC port stopped talking to the internet. He says it still works for system link, which is what I do anyway (being without broadband...)

Thanks to all for the advice. I KNOW I'm missing out on many things without Live - it's OK though.

I looked on Xbox.com a bit ago and I'm not real sure how I will set up the Silver account - but I guess it won't matter.

$160 is a great deal, btw. I wonder if he got bannded from xbox live and that's why there's no internet access... just a thought.

yeah..........OK :cool:

Everyone I know that has a 360 (admittedly not all that many, but 100% nonetheless) has had 0 problems out of their consoles.

so you can download the updates from Xbox.com, people told me Live was the only way.

$160 is a great deal, btw. I wonder if he got bannded from xbox live and that's why there's no internet access... just a thought.

Interesting thought. Might be worth checking if it can stream media from a PC.
If so, it is easily worth $200+ just as an MCE extender box.

Well - I am VERY happy to report that my steal of a deal 360 appears to be working perfectly (minus connectivity) and seems to be very quiet (it's got the Samsung/Tosh drive, not Hitachi or BenQ). I still have to test system link, but the seller already said that seemed to work.

Man, THIS is the reason I upgraded from my X1 to the Mits HD1000U - it's looking really good! If I get a year out of this console I will be pretty satisfied...actually that is sad compared to how well my original Xbox has been for the last two years...

I'll see what I can do about getting the console updates, but the OXM discs at least have the backwards compatability updates on them. I have been an OXM subscriber since before the 360 launch so I've got a bunch of demo discs that I was never able to play until now. I'm really enjoying it! I like the art galleries they put on the discs. I hope one of the later discs has that supposedly awesome Gears ad - I never have seen it (mad world or something?)

These discs (and games) are really the only way I get to see 720p content on my projector. I'm hoping I can bring the hard drive over to someone else's place who is connected (as mentioned before) so I can get some more content, but for now this is great.

That 360 is probably banned from Xbox Live due to being modded . M$ has been banning modded 360's for a couple months now and what happens is that the box will no longer connect to anything LIVE related . If the system link feature works then the NIC is still functioning in which case it is certainly a banned 360 ( which means it will never again be able to sign onto LIVE :( ) . $160 is a great price however and if you don't have broadband then no worries ;) . You can update the hard drive with another 360 but that will not get you the system updates (firmware) . You can read all about this at www.xbox-scene.com .

--- Jason

Yeah, chances are very good that your friend wasn't being completely straight with you. I'm also willing to bet that this console is modified and banned from XBox Live.

However, you can still get the system updates.

Go here and burn a CD with the system update on it:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/console/systemupdates.htm

Jason and Josh - thanks for the info. I did check out the update for the system on xbox.com - it looks easy enough and the download is only about 7MB. So I will certainly get that done and have the latest dashboard/system updates applied. However, what I am wondering about is, for example, how do I get the updates for Gears of War? I know they fixed a few issues with it, but I'm not sure how I can get it. Game specific updates are not included in the system updates are they?

And, I really don't think his Xbox was banned - I don't know why it would be. He certainly didn't mod it. They just said it stopped connecting to Live. In fact, he and his dad opened it up (thus voiding the warranty) to try to see what failed on the board/network card. When they had it opened they saw how integrated everything is and lost any hope of fixing it and just put it back together. I'm not sure why it stopped working with Live, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that he was trying to connect through a laptop somehow? He also mention that one time he gave it a pretty good static electricity shock, but I've had that happen a few times and it hasn't ruined consoles so far... Anyway I knew I wasn't getting a fully functioning system and I was never on line w/ original Xbox either. With the 360 though, it's much more crippling to not be connected - you have to do a lot of work arounds.

If anyone knows how I can still get game specific updates, let me know. Thanks.

Interesting. Oddly, the friend I bought it from has had this one over at my place for system link with my original Xbox and it works that way.... So it's apparently just something about connecting to the internet. I don't really get it but I don't have broadband anyway, so it really doesn't matter. I'm just looking for a work-around to get the updates. Can core systems get updates to the dashboard without a hard drive?


Hmm... so it can connect with system link but not to Live? Very strange. Though I have an old motherboard that the onboard ethernet port died even though it's still says "device is working properly" in Windows (XP and Vista). Perhaps it's something similar.

Definitely do what fjtorres suggested. See if it will connect to a PC.

I have the same projector as you: HD1000u. HD movies streamed from a PC are fantastic. The 360 will find .mpg, .wmv, and .dvr-ms files natively through Windows Media Extender (provided your PC has Windows Media Center). Beyond that, search around for TVersity or other 360 transcoding programs.

Windows Media Player will allow you to stream .wmv files from a PC to the 360 without starting Media Extender through the blue media blade.

A third option is what I truly enjoy. I reencode HD files to .wmvhd with Window Media Encoder, burn the files to disc, and play them through the 360. It's a little bit of work, but they are stored on disc and to play them is as easy as putting in a DVD.

HD-DVD is another option for movies and it, again, looks absolutely beautiful especially through the HD1000.

The 360 is very multimedia versatile. Definitely take advantage of what it can do!

If anyone knows how I can still get game specific updates, let me know. Thanks.

By taking the hard drive to a LIVE enabled 360 ;) (many of the game updates will even fit onto a memory card) .

-- Jason

Sweet - I've got a couple 64mb memory cards free from the Zero Hour event. I'll try that (or the HDD). Thanks again - wish I could play with you guys or the A.G.E. crew....