The notorious Matsushita UJ-857(D) firmware has at last been cracked, thanks to ben11 from rpc1.org. He has released region-free updates for the HAEA, HBEA, KBVB, and KCVB revisions.
Before I provide the download links, here's the obligatory disclaimer:
WARNING: DO NOT DOWNLOAD IF YOU ARE UNCONFIDENT ABOUT THE FLASHING PROCESS. IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG YOU ARE LIABLE FOR DRIVE REPAIR. THE FOLLOWING IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND IS NOT WARRANTED. FLASHING YOUR DRIVE IS IN VIOLATION OF APPLECARE TERMS
Now, take these steps before you do anything:
1. Check that you have a UJ-857 or UJ-857D drive with revisions HAEA, HBEA, KBVB, or KCVB. This can be done by going to the Apple Menu>About This Mac>More Info. This will open up System Profiler. Click on ATA and the Model number and Revision number will be listed. If it looks OK proceed to step 3.
2. If you have a UJ-857(D) drive but the revision number is NOT one of the four listed (HAEA, HBEA, KBVB, or KCVB), then you have not applied the Superdrive Update 2.1 which Apple released in June. You will need to apply this update BEFORE PROCEEDING. This update is no longer available from Apple so you can download it here. Once you have done so, proceed to step 3.
3. Download DVDInfoX to check whether you have a region set. YOU MUST HAVE PLAYED A DVD IN THIS DRIVE AND SET A REGION IN ORDER TO PROCEED. A correctly set drive will produce something along the lines of this using DVDInfoX:
If "State" is "SET", you are ready to flash your drive.
4. Download the correct RPC-1 (Region-Free) update.
UJ-857 Revision HAEA
UJ-857 Revision HBEA
UJ-857D Revision KBVB
UJ-857D Revision KCVB.
5. Read the included README and then proceed to opening the "Update to region free" application. The process will start immediately. DO NOT INTERRUPT THE FLASHING IN ANY WAY - it will result in a broken drive. Also, there are only a certain number of times the drive can be flashed so be very very careful. I suggest you restart the computer and shut down any other application that is running before you run the update - just to be safe.
One note: the flashing will probably hang at 60%, and then again at 90%. This is normal. Just be patient and let it finish. Do not panic and do anything stupid.
6. If everything goes well, the flashing will finish and it will ask you to restart. Once you have done that, you can open DVDInfoX and check that the drive has been flashed. A correctly flashed drive will show something along these lines:
7. That's it. Make sure to download Region X to change the region of the drive before you play DVDs. The drive is region-free, but you must still change the region manually to play DVDs from different regions.
Hope that helps, I know I'm glad that this is now available. I can confirm that it worked successfully on my Rev.A BlackBook.
Happy flashing!
irmongoose
Before I provide the download links, here's the obligatory disclaimer:
WARNING: DO NOT DOWNLOAD IF YOU ARE UNCONFIDENT ABOUT THE FLASHING PROCESS. IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG YOU ARE LIABLE FOR DRIVE REPAIR. THE FOLLOWING IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND IS NOT WARRANTED. FLASHING YOUR DRIVE IS IN VIOLATION OF APPLECARE TERMS
Now, take these steps before you do anything:
1. Check that you have a UJ-857 or UJ-857D drive with revisions HAEA, HBEA, KBVB, or KCVB. This can be done by going to the Apple Menu>About This Mac>More Info. This will open up System Profiler. Click on ATA and the Model number and Revision number will be listed. If it looks OK proceed to step 3.
2. If you have a UJ-857(D) drive but the revision number is NOT one of the four listed (HAEA, HBEA, KBVB, or KCVB), then you have not applied the Superdrive Update 2.1 which Apple released in June. You will need to apply this update BEFORE PROCEEDING. This update is no longer available from Apple so you can download it here. Once you have done so, proceed to step 3.
3. Download DVDInfoX to check whether you have a region set. YOU MUST HAVE PLAYED A DVD IN THIS DRIVE AND SET A REGION IN ORDER TO PROCEED. A correctly set drive will produce something along the lines of this using DVDInfoX:
If "State" is "SET", you are ready to flash your drive.
4. Download the correct RPC-1 (Region-Free) update.
UJ-857 Revision HAEA
UJ-857 Revision HBEA
UJ-857D Revision KBVB
UJ-857D Revision KCVB.
5. Read the included README and then proceed to opening the "Update to region free" application. The process will start immediately. DO NOT INTERRUPT THE FLASHING IN ANY WAY - it will result in a broken drive. Also, there are only a certain number of times the drive can be flashed so be very very careful. I suggest you restart the computer and shut down any other application that is running before you run the update - just to be safe.
One note: the flashing will probably hang at 60%, and then again at 90%. This is normal. Just be patient and let it finish. Do not panic and do anything stupid.
6. If everything goes well, the flashing will finish and it will ask you to restart. Once you have done that, you can open DVDInfoX and check that the drive has been flashed. A correctly flashed drive will show something along these lines:
7. That's it. Make sure to download Region X to change the region of the drive before you play DVDs. The drive is region-free, but you must still change the region manually to play DVDs from different regions.
Hope that helps, I know I'm glad that this is now available. I can confirm that it worked successfully on my Rev.A BlackBook.
Happy flashing!
irmongoose
