Removing Region Coding from iBook G3 700 Combo Drive Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-R2102

[alfiesy]

Hi,

I have an out of warranty iBook G3 700 Combo Drive and I want to remove turn the combo drive into a region free DVD-CDRW drive. How do I go about this again? Tried searching the old Philmug site to no avail.

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

Alfie

P.S.

The combo drive is a Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-R2102

[Edited on 8-10-2004 by alfiesy]

[Arel]

Hi Alfie!

Here's the most recent discussion about it on this site. You'll find the link to the Mac DVD resources page in one of the posts.

Good luck!

[Edited on 8-10-2004 by Arel]

[alfiesy]

Searching http://forum.rpc1.org only revealed a firmware hack for the Toshiba SD-RD-S2102 available EXCLUSIVELY under OS9 (not even classic mode). My secondhand iBook G3 700 Combo did not come with installation disks during purchase but I had a dual boot iMac G4 800 (OS 9.2.2 and OS X 10.3.5).

After downloading the firmware patch for my Toshiba SD-R2102 (RPC1 firmware XK27) and unstuffing (unzipping) the file, I performed the following steps to get my trusty iBook booting in OS 9:

1.) Copied the "System" (icon marked with a 9) and the "Applications (Mac OS 9)" folders into my iBook's Macintosh HD.
2.) Started Classic environment under System Preferences just to make sure that everything worked fine and then stopped it after the running the routine.

3.) Rebooted under OS 9.2.2 instructing the system to reboot under System Preferences - System - Start Up Disk

4.) System booted under OS 9.2.2

5.) Ran DVDInfo (included with the firmware patch) just to make sure my installed drive was the correct match for the patch I was about to apply.

6.) Ran the Toshiba SD-2102 XK27 firmware patch.

7.) Crossed my fingers and waited for what seemed like an eternity for the patch to be applied. At one point during the firmware patch update, I was seriously tempted to shut down my computer as my book looked like it hung for a few minutes with nothing happening except for the mouse pointer turning into a small non-spinning disc icon. No other program could be run. Nothing could be clicked. Whatever you do, DON'T. You risk permanently damaging your combo drive that way.

8.) The extra patience paid off with the firmware updating to RPC1 XK27 without a glitch and running DVDInfo revealed that my RPC2 drive was now a region free RPC1 drive.

9.) Booted back into OS X by changing again my start-up disk.

10.) Tested the drive by playing a Region 1 and Region 3 DVD disc and ripping songs from a CD into iTunes.

Hope this helps the other newbies with out of warranty books if they do decide to take the plunge and re-regionalize their drives.

Peace out.

[Edited on 8-11-2004 by alfiesy]