compaq 1720US, XP, combo

[ajreid]

I currently bought a Compaq 1720US with combo drive, primarily to watch DVD's. While I was in the States obviously I had no problems playing their movies...now I am in Turkey, soon to go onto Spain and then who knows where...

how the hell do I bypass this unfair restriction on what region DVD's I have to play...

I am running XP, not sure of the manufacturer of the combo drive, Compaq I believe, with an ATI graphic card/decoder.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, especially someone with the same laptop...

regards to all, merry xmas and a happy new year

[Trancemaster]

Run the file I have attached, and it should tell you whether or not your drive is region coded. If so, then there isn't much you can do short of upgrading the firmware. If not, then you merely need to find a region free tool appropriate to your DVD player. Is your ATI card actually a DVD decoder, or are you using a software player?

BTW, if you can't get Driveinfo to run, you may need to install ForceASPI, it's on this site somewhere.

Good Luck!