The Firmware Page

hello,
I'm having some problems with this dvd-rom, I'm trying to play UK dvd region 2 but I'd already set the region to 4 in the DVD Region tab of the properties. It says I have 4 changes remaining but when I try and change it to Region 2 it says:
"unable to update region setting. Please make sure the drive contains a region 2 media and you have administration privelege"

I am logged in as an administrator and I put in the Region 2 dvd, so any ideas? Sorry for whats probably such a simple stupid question. I read the info on flashing but I'm a noob at computers so I didn't know where to start..
Thanks for looking
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Disable 3rd party tools like AnyDVD, DaemonTools, Alcohol, DVD43, DVDregion+CSS FREE etc etc.

Who tells you that you admin privs?

The easiest way would be to use VLC as the player, IMO.

hey, thanks for reply, I checked that I was logged in as system administrator in user accounts and that the name was the same as the top of Start tab.
I don't think I have any of those tools on but I do have VLC. Heres three pics, the first of my original problem, you can see I have 4 attempts left. The 2nd and third are of my start and add/remove programs windows...





I've made a DOS startup disk with the flash but not sure about what version to use.
Cheers

Which "flash" do you refer to?

Please start up in SAFE MODE, disable Daemon Tools, then maybe try to change the region.

Hello again,

I uninstalled DAEMON tools and rebooted in safe mode as administrator and no luck changing from region 4 to region 2, still got the same message: "Unable to update region setting. Please make sure the drive contains a region 2 media and you have administration privilege."

I have 4 changes left as shown above, and I also downloaded and used Drive Region Info which confirms it has region protection and has 4 changes left.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?? I've looked all over the net for a similar problem with no solution. I am willing to flash the drive to RPC1 with the firmware (http://tdb.rpc1.org/#GDR8161B) but I'd need some help doing it. I'd rather fix the problem and change it to Region 2 and leave it there though. Another problem is the drive is currently set to Region 4 but I cannot play a region 4 dvd, the drive simply does not find the dvd, it "thinks" for about 15 seconds, then nothing, and when I click on the DVD drive it says please insert dvd.

Please Help!

alot of the times, the admin message, occurs because the drive has reached its total allowed resets, i would flash it to RPC1 tobe honest with you.

Check with Discinfo, and see what it says about the drive

I have 4 changes left.

From Disc Info:

D: HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8161B

Firmware version: 0100
Drive region status: Lock Detected
Region setting status Set
User changes left: 4
Manufactor resets left: 4
Current region set: 4
Read Speed: 48x Write speed: n/a

So how come I can't change the region???

Start up in SAFE MODE and try again...

No luck. I'm wondering if the lense is dirty, but it plays audio cds fine. What do you recon?

These drives have 2 lenses, 1 for CD and one for DVDs.

Try to boot from a bootable DVD...

I took it apart, there's only one lens there that I could see. I cleaned it with some cotton on a stick and luke warm water. It works exactly the same as before, it plays audio cds, burnt cds with files on them, but no dvds. It doesn't even detect a cd when there's a dvd in it. I think I'm going to try flashing it, where is the how to for doing that?

That makes no big sense, a CD is no DVD and vice versa.
You could flash the drive maybe, but it cannot recover failed hardware.

Sorry for being daft; what makes no sense?

The drive still plays audio cds and can read a cd with files on it, but it just doesn't even register a dvd. It used to play dvds just fine.

maybe its time to buy a new drive