# Solved: a little bit of DOS advice please....



## jonny p (Aug 10, 2002)

I want to rid a DVD rom drive of its region coding.My friend gets a lot of films from the states cos they come out 2 months earlier over there, but if i watch any more my dvd will stay fixed to that region.So ive got a patch to rid the drive of region coding but it must be run in MS DOS.Ok i can get into MS dos with Me or 98 boot disc (either/or) and i have the patch on a floppy but then what?Once im in DOS ie the little flashing cursor and so on what do i do to get the program on the floppy to run?There is a bin file and an exe file and a readme which contains no instructions.What command do i give to make the program work?Its in a folder at present called 8586_3X24RPC1.As you can see my knowledge of DOS is somewhat lacking.When i clicked on the exe in Windows XP it tried to 'self extract' of course nothing happened being in the wrong environment.
Thanks for any help


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

jonny p said:


> When i clicked on the exe in Windows XP it tried to 'self extract' of course nothing happened being in the wrong environment.


I will bet that if indeed that the program, the .exe file, tried to 'self extract' that it did. The files just extracted into a folder that you are not aware of. Wherever the extracted files are, there may be the runnable program, perhaps ever further instructions of what to do (perhaps in a .txt file).

If the files did self-extract then, you will need to figure out where the files are.


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## jonny p (Aug 10, 2002)

well you're quite right chucke and thanks for your input.But its the same and the readme is the same.its just uncompressed to a bigger file with the same filename.so i still need to find how to run it.Im sure its a really simple answer; in other words how do you run any program in dos? do you type 'run' or 'setup.exe' or something of that sort?its probably as basic as that.

ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM Drive F/W Download Ulitlity DWL2.EXE Usage
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Usage: DWL2 <0-3> <F/W file name>
0: PRIMARY MASTER
1: PRIMARY SLAVE
2: SECONDALY MASTER
3: SECONDALY SLAVE

Ex.: DWL2 2 A.BIN

You can't use this program on "Windows DOS Prompt".
Please execute on Real-DOS mode.

thats what the readme says i pasted it.



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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

Often some programs will extract using the same name. Such as "blahblah.exe" (being a self extracting file) that uncompresses to "blahblah.exe" elsewhere. Yes, it is the same name, but it is not the same file. The 2nd is the real program. 

Most programs to run from DOS are just run by typing in the name of the program. But what is the program supposed to do? Does it modify something on your computer, does it modify something on your DVD drive? is it a file that you need to upload to your drive's ROM, to overwrite the old?

Can you post the name of the program, or the ReadMe here, so that someone here could research it more for you?

When I searched for "8586_3X24RPC1" all I got was info on a Panasonic Mat****a SR-8586 DVD-ROM.

UPDATE
-------
I just re-read your posting. I now see some additional details - did you do an update yourself? Anyway, let me read through this again.


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

OK, it looks like you have at least a couple files once that original program extracted.
One part is called "DWL2.exe" which is the utility used to update your drive's ROM.
The second part is called "A.BIN" A.BIN is the update data that needs to be sent to the DVD drive. (That is sent by the DWL2 program, and it is sent out to the IDE "port" that you designate).

You need to figure out which of your IDE connections is used for the drive you are updating, can be one of four. Look at that list, the numbers used are 0 to 3.

Then, from DOS, in the directory that holds those two files, you type:
*DWL2 0 A.BIN* or *DWL2 1 A.BIN* or *DWL2 2 A.BIN* or *DWL2 3 A.BIN*
It all depends which of those 4 possible IDE connections you are using.

What your program does, ... I have no idea. Good luck.


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## jonny p (Aug 10, 2002)

ok chuckE and sorry for the sparcity of information, yes its a firmware upgrade for a Mat****a drive as you have amazingly deduced so quickly!The program is supposed to alter the preset factory determined region for the drive to 'region free' so you can play dvd's from anywhere.
I think from what you have told me i can attempt to proceed so i'll have a go tomorrow its late here now so I will post results then.... and thanks a lot for that info on the relevance of the different files.


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## jonny p (Aug 10, 2002)

Ok I tried it but it didnt work as expected.Typed A:\DWL2 .Exe but got the message 'you cant use this program in windows Dos Prompt .Please execute a real dos mode.'
Typing in A;\DWL2 3A BIN just produced 'not ready reading drive F'

I got into DOS with a windows 98 boot up disc which i thought was 'REAL dos'; if thats not real dos where can I get a real dos os? Really puzzled now!


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

Where are the extracted files? I would not expect that you have the extracted files on the floppy. If you do not have all the extracted files on the floppy it isn't going to work.

You should be able to use the Win98 startup floppy, if the DOS modes of the Win<whatever> is not usable. And again, ALL the extracted files must be available on the A: floppy, if you are going to run the command from there.

The command you said you typed, is not correct.
First, it you are already at the *A:> * prompt, you do not need to type in the A: part again. It does not hurt, but if you are going to enter it YOU MUST use the correct syntax, and *A;* (you showed me a semi-colon) is NOT it. It should be a colon ":"

Entering (as you showed me) "*A:\DWL2 3A BIN *" is not correct, even if you had used a colon. The command must have a space after the number, and it must have a period between the "A" and the "BIN". It should be *DWL2 3 A.BIN*

Isn't there some computer person nearby you that could show you how to do this?


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## jonny p (Aug 10, 2002)

Thanks ChuckE, I appreciate your comments; I think in my haste to post the results of my endevours I was a bit sloppy in my reporting.All I did was type DWL2 3 A.BIN after the A:\> prompt (which produced no result) and then tried typing DWL2.EXE which I wasnt told to do but which produced a result of sorts.
BUT you have me thinking I didnt leave another space after the number; Ill try again just in case.
Yes I did extract all the files and copied and pasted them from the folder(directory) straight onto the floppy i.e. on the floppy they were not in a directory other than 'A'.

And a big 'No' to there being a computer person nearby!I am a computer person, just not a very knowledgeable one!!!And Ive got Techguy forum which to date has provided me with all the info I've ever needed....i'm afraid i know as much as my local computer 'specialist' store who charge £50 an hour and never solve anything....
Will try again anyhow and post back....thanks for your patience!


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## jonny p (Aug 10, 2002)

OK got it right this time and the message is "Cannot open file 'A.BIN'".Any other ideas?If all else fails I can try swapping the DVD drive into my old pc running Windows 98SE ;i think you can reboot straight into 'real' DOS from there without using an emergency diskette.My main PC is dual boot XP Pro/ Windows Me neither of which will boot into DOS.If you have any other suggestions before this I would be glad to try them to avoid all the time messing about!


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

Wow, £50 an hour ($61+), is more than what I get.


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

If the message says "Cannot open file 'A.BIN'" then I would say that there is no file named A.BIN at your location. Can you post the unextracted program here?
Or tell me where I can get it?

I don't think you can put an EXE file here, so just rename it to whatever.TXT


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## jonny p (Aug 10, 2002)

http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?category=1&manufactor=18

This gives the page.Go to the twelfth block of downloads down-for the 8586 drives.The patch i downloaded is the 3x24 RPC-1 firmware.It is called 8586-3X24RPC1.zip
Sorry dont know how to post the program-I tried but couldnt, & couldnt rename the zipped folder or program there was no option to do so.


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

To place a file here you have to go to click on the [Go Advanced] button.
There you should see an Attach Files section with a [Manage Attachments] button. You don't have to rename a zip file.

Don't worry about it for now. I'll see if I can get the 8586-3X24RPC1.zip file myself.


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

OK, I got the ZIP file. ...

There is no "A.BIN" file there.
That is just an example line. You have to use whatever the name of the BIN file is.
In your case it is called "3X24.BIN"

So, and assuming you have the correct number of the IDE interface to your Panasonic DVD drive, (and you said it was second IDE channel, the Slave), the command you would want to type would be:
*DWL2 3 3X24.BIN*

Make sure you have the spaces, and the punctuation correct, as in 
*DWL2*(space)*3*(space)*3X24*(period)*BIN*


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## jonny p (Aug 10, 2002)

chuckE you're a star..i mean to say that's blindingly obvious...now that you point it out!The readme is a bit misleading then, it doesnt specifically relate to 3X24BIN. To be honest i couldnt fathom out what it meant & i see what 'f/w file name' means now.
Right here goes.....lets try it out


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

It uses the example line like "DWL2 2 A.BIN" because that website uses the same DWL2 program for all the many various upgrade files also located there for the many different drives there. They did not want to make individual ReadMe files for each and every drive.

The ReadMe could have been a little more explanative, though.


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## jonny p (Aug 10, 2002)

YAHOO IT WORKED! Like a dream....job done.ChuckE what can I say...thanks a million -saved me having to fork out for a new drive! AND a very usefull lesson in flashing firmware....thanks again from a slightly more knowledgeable computer person than when I started.....


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