Install probs.

[CybaGirl]

Ok first of all.

Did you install the drive?

Is this new drive replacing an existing drive or is it a new drive being added to your PC as an additional drive?

I have a BENQ 1650 myself and BENQ drives are one of the best drives other than a Plextor that you can buy.

I run BENQ 1650's and LG drives in all of my PC's (5) and my latest system using a BENQ 1650 has no problems at all running SH3.

It also appears that your model numbers conflict. As the page you gave reference too says its a 1648A in one part and in another part it says its a 1650 :hmm: . But what is it really?

What does the model number say on top of the actual drive? Does it also say BENQ on the front bezel panel?

And finally for the time being:

How is the drive connected? Is it connected on its own or is it connected inline with a hard drive or other CD/DVD device?

What kind of cable is used to connect the drive? The 80 wire type or the earlier 40 wire type?

[CybaGirl]

Originally Posted by Laffertytig

normally when i install SH3 it does the starforce protection thingy but it doesnt do that anymore. in device manager under cdrom tab it says current 1 which is USA and im in region 2 which is UK. would this affect it? it doesnt allow me to change it though.

ive been on cd-rom drivers.com and looked under lite-on company drivers but mine doesnt seem tho be there. there is one listed as "all driver" but it seems to be a program and not a driver.

help

First of all LiteOn dont make very good DVD burners I am sorry to say. They make excellent CD burners and they are also good at reading discs. But they dont burn DVD's that well.

Where did you buy SH3 from? Is your version the US version or the European version? I live in Australia myself and I brought the US version from the USA. As I didnt want the European version of the game.

I think your problem is associated with the region settings and your drive is now locked at 1 which is USA and cannot be changed via windows settings or applications anymore .

There is software tools like AnyDVD in which you can change the region of the drive all the time. In fact I use this program myself and I have never used any region codes up in my hardware at all. So its still set to factory standards as not being set. As AnyDVD takes care of this for me . In fact AnyDVD is reporting back to me that my drive is set to region 1 as I have SH3 sitting in it right at this moment. But as soon as I take the disk out. It says that there is no region set to my drive .

From memory I think you can also get Liteon software that will allow you to change settings of the drive which also includes the ability to change regions.

Also if your drive uses a media tek chipset you can reflash the drive and then you will get back the ability to change the drives region settings again. But there is only certain brands, drives and model numbers in which you can do this. Honestly it is probably much easier for you to get AnyDVD. Especially if you dont know much about computers and flashing hardware etc.

Always bare in mind for now and the future of any computer DVD drives that you buy. If you change the DVD region settings via the actual drive itself you will only be allowed to do this five times then the drive becomes locked to that region . You can thank Sony for this BS!

Unless of course you use software like AnyDVD to change it for you automatically. That is why I always use AnyDVD. As I never change anything via the hardware and it always remains the same as when I first brought it.

You can get a trial of AnyDVD from the following link:

http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html

Give it a try as I am 99.9% sure it will solve your problems .

[Laffertytig]

but the thing is this drive has been fine up until now when i did a reinstall so why should this region stuff be an issue now?

and to cybargirl why do u think i have a "BENQ drive 1650" drive whe it doesnt match the drive i listed?

i cant install any software apart from 1 game which is footbal manager 2006 at present so im praying someonw has a solution for me

[Laffertytig]

bumpety

[CybaGirl]

Originally Posted by Laffertytig

but the thing is this drive has been fine up until now when i did a reinstall so why should this region stuff be an issue now?

and to cybargirl why do u think i have a "BENQ drive 1650" drive whe it doesnt match the drive i listed?

i cant install any software apart from 1 game which is footbal manager 2006 at present so im praying someonw has a solution for me

Ok there is some confusion on your part I think let me explain .

First of all when I mentioned the BENQ drive that was in reference to the OP question.

I then replied to your query in my second post. So I hope you understand more clearly now .

Now to answer your question:

If your DVD drive has become region locked then you wont be able to install the game. Because your drive is locked to that region and there is very little you can do about it. Other than installing and using a program like AnyDVD. This becomes a problem mainly for DVD movies. I never thought DVD games were region coded. But it appears that they or some are. As when I have SH3 in my DVD drive it says that my DVD drive is set to region 1. I brought my copy of SH3 from the US which is region 1 so this is why it is reporting back to me that my drive is set to region one.

However I live in Australia which is region 4. So when I play a DVD movie on my DVD drive then it switches to region 4.

Remembering all along that AnyDVD is changing the region code for me automatically and it is not being stored inside the drives firmware. Like it gets stored in the drives firmware when you use Windows to change the region setting. Also remembering that you are only allowed to change the region code 5 times when changing it via Windows. As it writes this information to the actual drive. But with ANyDVD you can change it however many times you like. As AnyDVD does not write the region code to the drive and it is all controlled by AnyDVD.

All you have to do to solve this problem is just install AnyDVD and see if it works. As I am 99.9% sure this is what your probelm is. I mean you have nothing to loose and everything to gain.

I understand that this program is not free but the thing is there is very little you can do now that your drive is regionally locked. Again this is why I always use AnyDVD as none of my drives ever get set to a particular region.

However if you dont wish to purchase this program. But still download and install it to see if it fixes your problem. There is another alternative in which you can reflash your DVD drive with a PRC1 firmware which basically is a region free firmware. But I will need to know what model your drive is for this to be done. That way if you flash your drive to a RPC1 spec drive then you never have to worry about region settings again.

Finally AnyDVD does alot more than taking care of region codes. It also removes copy protection from DVD's and audio CD's plus many other features. It is well worth having installed on your PC and it is one of the second thing I install onto my PC after a reformat.

[CybaGirl]

Here is a couple of screen shots I made up for you. Hopefully this will explain this region code thing more clearly for you. Additionally you may like to download Nero Infotool if you dont already have it and see what your drives region is set to and also confirm wheather or not you can change the region setting anymore.






Well I hope this clears things up a little better for you.

[Laffertytig]

right i really am at my wits end here. i changed the secondry ide channel to PIO (which ive never had to do before) and the game installs and even runs but when i try to patch (tryed both usa and europe dvd) it i get "progarm cant update file NSS uboat unknown file"

ive never had this error since buyin SH3 when it came out. ive tryed downloadin patch from ubi.com to no avail. this makes me think that because i have drive set at PIO its installing but not correctly. when i return it to DMA i get installation error "CRC cannot read cab file etc"

my drive is listed as "LITE-ON DVDRW SHM - 165P6S" ive looked at they're website and cant find any drivers for my drive. ive also checked cdromdrivers.com and my drive aint listed there either. just got the drive last month and it was fine up until i reinstalled windows

if someone could help me find it (if thats what the prob is) they would make my day as my pc's been outa commission now for almost a week and im rdy for throwing it out the window

help