Region Locked DVD drive?

[Deano2]

Anyone able to help here?

I have a Pioneer DVD 113R drive (the old 6 speed drive released before the 114). Somehow I managed to region lock the drive (even though I use Hollywood + and Zone Selector). Trouble is now I'm all out of region changes on my Hollywood + card, Zone selector doesn't seem to work as the drive is region locked in firmware.

I have the prog to install region free firmware for the Pioneer DVD 114 BUT - will this work with my 113R or will I be screwed if I use it?

Any advice could save me hosing a £100 drive...

Cheers people.

 

[SteelyKen]

The only way I know to region lock the 103/113 drives is to remove the jumpers on the back. If you have done this, then you are screwed. There is no way to go back. I feel your pain.

 

[Deano2]

Nope - haven't removed any jumpers but since a reformat of my hard drive and reinstallation of everything the zone selector stopped working.

C'mon guys - any thoughts? I can't be screwed! Wah!

 

[dkozloski]

The "R" in DVD-113R means region locked. I have a Pioneer 303 that started out an S and became an R. All the experts said it was not reversible but I tried all the crack sites anyway. No luck. This morning I found a new firmware flash routine on http://www.digital-digest.comthat did the trick. On boot the thing reports as a 303F for fixed I suppose and reports in the little utility that it is not region locked. Even the blind hog finds an acorn once in a while. Maybe you can find something there that will help you.

 

[Deano2]

Ah-ha!

I know mine is a third gen pioneer (6x DVD 32x CD) and they have a crack listed for those but no model no.s specified. They also say the drives are supposed to be non-locked by default. So WAS mine.

Wonder how the hell it became locked?!?

Thanks for the help!

 

[ricow]

check if the jumper is still on RPC1 if it is flash the firmware and it shoud be unlockt also check this site because if it is lockt the have a proggie to unlock it i hope?
http://www.firmware.com.bi/

 

[ricow]

found your solution go to this site and you can unlock your drive
http://members.xoom.com/_XMCM/zozo00/fekete.htm

 

[Deano2]

thanks for this guys - got all the firmware patches and region eraser software but (and this makes me sound like a spaz) I'm a little confused over Fekete's instructions.

What's got me is he refers to using an icon pointing to the exe file and setting this up to run in DOS. I have win 98 and prefer not to mess around in DOS.

Is there anyone who can post a quick step by step "Idiots guide" to make this run properly (either in DOS or Win)? Dkozloski???

Think everyone in these forums would thank you guys for translating Fekete's instructions! Cheers.