I don't see any reason why isos mounted with daemon tools on a virtual drive wouldn't work... That's saying that the problem is a software problem not affecting media in general, only all DVD-playback, yet the problem is not specific to the DVD drive. It seems to be a problem, fundamentally, with the DVD playback...perhaps something wrong with the process by which DVDs are decoded during playback. Maybe reinstalling something would fix it, but I have no idea what you could try reinstalling...

When did you purchase your DVD drive?

Ok so your drive is rpc2. That means the number of times you can change the region is hard-wired into the drive. Therefore, I don't see any reason why using up all the region-changes would cause a software problem. If we can't figure out any other options, is it possible for you to reinstall windows?

Umm windows reinstall should be possible with windows xp cd...if you REALLY wanna kill this problem, you can try backing up all your data and using your restore disk to restore the computer to factory condition (assuming you didn't custom make your computer). Then you would have to reinstall EVERYTHING afterwards.

Hmmm I tried to reinstall windows xp (without wiping the hard drive clean), but I couldn't figure out how. Deleting everything and starting from scratch shouldn't be hard to do, though. A probable last resort solution would be to backup all your files and then use the restore disk (which puts your computer back into the state in which you bought it). Know what I mean?

LOL....Lacus...this was the thing I suggested to you when you visited me the other day....remormatting the computer...the backup can kill if you have lots of media....the reformatting won't take exactly super long...like say 2 hours- 3 hours...including installing all you hardware/software drivers ....excluding updating your software from the net....and you are gonna ask me how to do that....backup 1st then...when you are ready...contact me again...(no guarantee!)