HP DVD300i firmware problem

[clive]

i have a hp dvd300i which i recently bought, and everytime i was on the net it would ask me if i wanted to
upgrade my firmware. Eventually i got really irritated with this annoying message that i just did the upgrade.
Well, needless to say that after that everything went pear shaped and now i cannot read dvd movies or my dvds
that i have written. In my frantic desperation i downloaded a cracked firmware to revert back to my original firmware
as the support from hp was not proving fruitful (surprise! surprise!). The 'downgrade' was successful except for the fact
that i still cant read dvds etc. CAN ANYONE IN THIS MAD WORLD GIVE ME AN ANSWER PLEASE?
Ps. how do i get rid of that annoying upgrade pop up menu, cause its baaack!

[RabidDog]

It must load some software that checks the net, every time you boot up. You must diable this software either via a firewall or by removing it from the start up menu. Do not update your firmware again till you are ure you know what you want, and why you want it.

[toronto098]

I normally disable ALL autoupdate and checking features if possible.

Good luck.