My x360 is moded with LT+ 2.0 and currently on dash 13146, it has been banned for about 2 years now (feb. 2010). My problem is that I keep getting E81 while updating to 13599 or 13604. I ran Gears of War 3 and that update (13406 - I believe) went fine, but when I try Dark Souls or RAGE (both 13599) I get E81 error while it extracts/unpack the update. I then tried both the 13599 and the 13604 updates from this site, using a usb stick. I get the same results. I tried booting the console while holding the sync button - thus clearing the update - but it still won't update, giving E81 error every time. What is this E81 error? I know it's an update error, something to do with failed update or something like that. Can it be fixed, either by a future update or something else or is it stuck like this?
They said it's been banned for 2 years, maybe you should read? If you're updating the Xbox I believe that you would have to put the OFW back onto the disc drive before you can update. Also a quick question. Is you drive spoofed to think it's a different model?
Try flashing the dvd drive to stock, then booting normally, it may be able to install the update then. If it still fails to boot, remove the hdd and try booting normally, or holding the sync button to clear updates again with the hdd removed. The newest few system updates flash the dvd drive with a new firmware and often fail to do so when the drive is running a custom firmware. If one of that works, try flashing to stock then doing the update while booting with a usb flash drive.
The drive is the stock one, hasn't been spoofed. I don't think the stock method works, as other people have problem with this and it did not worked even with the drive back to stock. I don't have the means to do it now though, but if nothing else works I'll eventually give it a shot. Afaik, the 13599 and 13604 should not flash the drive. Most people are updating to newest dash - 13604 - with custom fw. Many people have updated to 13599 the same way.
Going from 13146 to a higher firmware reflashes the drive. If you're already on 13599 and up to 13604 then you have no flashing as it's just a maintenance update, therefore no reflashing but going from 13146 to 13604 will still flash the disc drive. Most people don't have this problem and that is because not everyone has the same disc drive.