Ooops... Laptop locked on region 1
Discussion
I lent my laptop to a friend who needed it for some word processing stuff. Anyway, he only went and watched a few DVD's with it, and now it's bloody locked on region 1. I used DVD genie to reset the region so i could watch my region 2 dvd's from home,a s well as my netflix ones that are region 2. He didn't know/realise, and so I need a program that will 'unlock' the region code, and let me use both regions again!! Prefereably a free program, as I'm a cheapskate!!! Anyone have any ideas?
If its a newer drive then it might be firmware locked (=computer sez no) If its just the XP software lock then there's a registry key. My memory is a little hazy and the last time I did it was on Windows 2000 but I think it's under hkey_local_machinesoftware and is just a short sequence of random characters, if you delete that it gives you five more goes at changing the region in device manager.
Plotloss said:
If you've reached the firmware lock limit its going to be very difficult to change it now without reflashing the firmware, which may or may not be possible.
Exactly.. No amount of drive formatting will fix the region issue. Its stored in the dvd drive gubbins itself.
It may be that you can find updated or hacked/patched firmware for it, that will sort it. I've done this before and it isnt difficult. But it entirely depends on if a hack/patch exists for your exact model of drive.
You will likely have to do some hunting around for it.
If you can't unlock the drive, then you can use the free VLC music player as this bypasses both the XP and hardware region code and will play any region DVD.
pcameron said:
If you can't unlock the drive, then you can use the free VLC music player as this bypasses both the XP and hardware region code and will play any region DVD.
'Tis a good media player is that.
pcameron said:
If you can't unlock the drive, then you can use the free VLC music player as this bypasses both the XP and hardware region code and will play any region DVD.
Ooh..I'll try that! Thanks!
As has been hinted in other posts, if your drive is locked it is almost certainly locked in the drive itself.
You basically have two solutions (as opposed to all the workarounds being suggested). You either need to flash the firmware back to factory default or a hacked multi-region firmware, or else you need to rip out the drive and replace it.
If you go down the firmware flashing route, whether it be factory original or hacked, either way you will need to acquire a firmware image (the manufacturer will not give it to you) and a flasher. Try www.rpc1.com
Be careful flashing the firmware. Get it wrong and you will irrevocably trash the drive and then you will have to replace it.
You basically have two solutions (as opposed to all the workarounds being suggested). You either need to flash the firmware back to factory default or a hacked multi-region firmware, or else you need to rip out the drive and replace it.
If you go down the firmware flashing route, whether it be factory original or hacked, either way you will need to acquire a firmware image (the manufacturer will not give it to you) and a flasher. Try www.rpc1.com
Be careful flashing the firmware. Get it wrong and you will irrevocably trash the drive and then you will have to replace it.
pcameron said:
If you can't unlock the drive, then you can use the free VLC music player as this bypasses both the XP and hardware region code and will play any region DVD.
Well, this one is fantastic, and works way better than any of the other stuff. Thanks for the link. Have a cigar!!
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