Media Player DVD Region setting difficulty

Hi. Bought my daughter's Windows 7 Compaq Presario CQ57 laptop with 2 GB memory in USA in late 2011. Everything is fine, except with playing one particular DVD. We live in Australia, and play DVDs bought in Australia regularly. An Alf (the alien) entire series one DVD however prompts a message window requiring the changing of the DVD region setting from 1 (USA) to 4 (Australia) , and warns that this will be the last time we will be able to change DVD region even if operating system is re-installed as limited number of changes possible.

Upon attempting to change to region 4 (which Im sure I did long ago anyway, and Aus. bought discs all work fine thus far too) Im told:
Unable to update region setting. The drive reports that it requires media of the destination region (region 4) so please insert appropriate media and try again.

Ive inserted several Australian bought DVDs at this prompt but made no headway. Im presuming computer is currently set at region 1 for some reason and that most DVDs we have played have not been stamped with a regional location setting until I encountered ALF. How can I get the damn setting to change to Australia so the damn DVD will play? lol
Not the end of the world, but any help appreciated, cheers

When you change the Region of a DVD drive, it IS NOT occuring in software. This action occurs on the device itself (the dvd drive) and is ussually limited to 4 changes before it becomes permanent. This cannot be overcome without replacing the drive. A new dvd drive can be had for $20. This may be an option to consider.

A simple solution... get imgburn. Its free.
use this software to rip the original dvd to an ISO.
Then use this same software to write this ISO to a new blank dvd
now you have a region-free dvd.
OR
use software such as Virtual CloneDrive (its free too) to 'mount' the ISO and play the mounted image.