DVD regional setting problem

Hi,

I've just come across a new problem and I'm wondering whether there is a solution for this.

Equipment: Compaq Presario 700 notebook

It seems like normally when playing DVDs from different regions across the globe there are only 5 chances to change or switch the reginal setting. On this notebook the last region change was western European and the change feature is now disabled and I can't play American DVDs. The error message says the DVD in the drive is for a different region and won't play. According to windows 2k properties for the DVD drive; even if windows is reinstalled or the drive is moved to another PC the region setting won't change.
Is there a way around that?