The Firmware Page

Need a little help understanding the Region Free thing. For starters, I don't need to change the region, but I noticed that the drive on my notebook computer only has two changes left. (It had four changes before I flashed the firmware to the one recommended on this board.)

DISCINFO VERSION : 1.6.1.6
VENDOR : HL-DT-ST
MODEL : RW/DVD GCC-4240N
REVISION : D110
VENDOR SPECIFIC : 0BLCA 02/05/23
LOADING MECHANISM : Tray
NUMBER VOL. LEVELS : 256
BUFFER SIZE : 2048KB
INTERFACE : ATAPI
RPC2 SCHEME : NO
ANALOG AUDIO PLAY : YES
COMPOSITE OUTPUT : NO
DIGITAL PORT-PORT1 : NO
DIGITAL PORT-PORT2 : NO
READ UPC CODE : YES
MULTISESSION READ : YES
MODE 2 FORM 1 : YES
MODE 2 FORM 2 : YES
READ ISRC CODE : YES
READ BAD CODE : NO
BUFFER UNDER-RUN : YES
MT. RAINIER : NO
CAN READ CDR : YES
CAN READ CDRW : YES
CAN READ CDRM2 : YES
CAN WRITE CDR : YES
CAN WRITE CDRW : YES
CAN TEST WRITE : YES
CAN READ DVD-ROM : YES
CAN READ DVD-R : YES
CAN READ DVD-RW : YES
CAN READ DVD-RAM : NO
CAN READ DVD+R : NO
CAN READ DVD+RW : NO
CAN WRITE DVD-R : NO
CAN WRITE DVD-RW : NO
CAN WRITE DVD-RAM : NO
CAN WRITE DVD+R : NO
CAN WRITE DVD+RW : NO
MAX CDR READ SPEED : 24
MAX CDR WRITE SPEED: 4


I'm using Windows XP Professional. How do I reset the count, or does it even matter?

What program is telling you that you have 2 changes left? Is it Windows?

This is probably what happened: Before you flashed, "the software" that you're using was recognizing that your DVD drive's region had only been set one time, giving you four remaining changes. You flashed the drive with a RPC-1 firmware, removing its region protection completely and making it region-free. The region protection that you see now is Windows' own region protection which can be defeated by other means.

Read this thread.

Thanks for your response. I had read that page several times before posting. The question is, what are those "other means?" This counter is in Windows XP, since I can see it in Device Manager. It is not in another application. Are you saying that the Windows counter cannot be reset?

It seems like I have done this once before, but I don't remember the details. So, I must have made the drive region free, but Windows still thinks I can only change the region two more times. Since I'm no expert on these things, I would appreciate you "holding my hand" on finishing up on this. The OS is XP Pro with SP2.

The Windows counter often doesn't even enforce itself. If you don't ever change regions you don't have anything to worry about and you probably should just step back and enjoy your drive

The other means are DVD Region Killer or DVD Genie.