# Solved: Region Free Firmware for Matsu****a DVD Drive



## kreiff (Mar 23, 2011)

Does anyone have any experience with custom firmware revisions for Mac DVD drives?

I moved to Japan in 2007 and had a bunch of DVDs that I brought with me, but I also rented Japanese DVDs constantly, so I wanted to make my drive region free.

I found a site that offered custom firmware for matsu****a drives that made them RPC1 so that you could use Region X to reset the number of region switches you could make an infinite number of times. That way I could watch DVDs from the U.S. or from Japan without having to worry about having my drive permanently locked.

The drive worked perfectly fine for years...but recently it's basically stopped recognizing all DVDs and is very unreliable at recognizing blank media or even burning CDs...Has anyone made their mac DVD drive region free and found a way to fix their drive after having issues? I don't think I'll have a lot of luck at the genius bar with this...so I'm turning to you folks!

My drive is a Matsu****a DVD-R UJ-857E if that helps...


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

It's very likely the region unlocking and drive failing are unrelated.

It's really hard to suggest how to fix the drive since it could be anything and most likely hardware failing. At that point best bet is usually just getting the drive replaced. (Either professionally, or yourself.)


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## kreiff (Mar 23, 2011)

That's actually a good point. I suppose the laptop is fairly old at this point...I never considered that the drive itself could be failing and it may have nothing to to do with the firmware! I guess it's time to look into a new drive..or maybe a new computer?

Thanks for waking me up to that possibility headrush!


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## kreiff (Mar 23, 2011)

I took it in to the apple store to get it checked out. The drive is indeed busted. No issues with the firmware...I should have suspected that from the start!

Thanks again headrush! Problem solved.


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