Laptop dvd no longer multi-region

I have an old laptop that is handy for watching dvd's when we are on the go. We have dvd's from different regions and it used to play them all on it without any problems.
Recently I put on a local dvd (is that region 2?) and a message popped up asking whether I was sure I wanted to play dvd from this region and would not be prompted again. I clicked ok without really thinking, but since then it won't play region 1 anymore.
Any ideas if I can download a patch or something to reverse this?

Don't know about a fix, someone else may do. But what happened is standard practice. Laptops will let you change regions up to 5 times. After that you are locked into the last region you selected.

Try googling it. I seem to remember there is a fix, but when I looked at it before it didn't appeal to me.

Cheers.

Update: Found these links through Google:

[broken link removed]

http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/CD-DVD-Rip-Other-Tools/DVD-Region-Killer.shtml

Haven't used any of these myself but they may help. Other users may have tried them?

Best of luck.

What make and model of drive is it? If it's not obvious then something like Lavalys Everest should tell you. Some drives may have a limited number of region changes before they lock down and cannot be changed again. With some a firmware update/rewrite may revert this. It all depends on the specific make/model.

Not sure about make/model of drive, will check it later. It's a bit of a pain considering you could be travelling anywhere with a laptop and need to play a local dvd.
Google showed a couple of downloads that might work, but they are old (not updated since around 2002) and I don't want to wreck it completely with something dodgy.

Mel said:

I don't want to wreck it completely with something dodgy.

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Know what you mean. That's the same for me. I would only try them if someone else can verify that they still work.

Jethro said:

Know what you mean. That's the same for me. I would only try them if someone else can verify that they still work.

Click to expand...

Might help if somebody actually posted the links in question!

ClubMan said:

Might help if somebody actually posted the links in question!

Click to expand...

They are up above in my first post Clubman. The product that looks relevant, but old, is DVD Region Killer. Don't know if you've come across it before.

Cheers.

I use and it works everytime and is very straightforward.

Jethro said:

They are up above in my first post Clubman.

Click to expand...

I presume you added them after the fact? Don't think they were there earlier...

The product that looks relevant, but old, is DVD Region Killer. Don't know if you've come across it before.

Click to expand...

I would look for a make/model specific first before investigating other options.

Mel,
download the following small program, driveinfo22 and run it, it will tell you the information about your DVD drive and how many (if any) changes you can make. Get it here,
http://www.digital-digest.com/software/download.php?sid=2&ssid=0&did=1


I had the same problem with DVD's i brought back from Thailand, i used DVD RegionKiller as mentioned in previous posts, and it worked,

hope this helps

Only noticed the responses to this now - thanks tallpaul and Thedoc, I'll take a look at both of those and let you know how I get on.

You should be able to use VLC - http://videolan.org - to play DVDs regsrdless of the region setting of the drive.

z

Only getting back to this now.

I used this program suggested by thedoc to find out what the situation was - http://www.digital-digest.com/software/download.php?sid=2&ssid=0&did=1

It showed that the player was locked on region 1, and had 0 region changes left for user.

I tried the two links for the region killer - first seems to be dead now, second one valid - http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-...n-Killer.shtml

I downloaded the DVD Region Killer V2.7, and when I ran the program above again, it shows 4 changes again - reset to original count i think.

However the dvd's I've tried to play will run only the inital sequence, as in, the movie house inital few seconds. Movies just aren't playing.

I've downloaded the last suggestion above, and this is working, the quality is a bit jumpy, but it's playing. I'll have another look at the other program when I have time, as there were some restrictions on the player setup that I don't quite understand.

But in the meantime, the program here seems to be the answer - http://videolan.org

Thanks zag and thanks everyone else for the suggestions.

VLC is excellent little video player. Plays everything in my experience.