i have a lite on 48161H and i need to reset or remove the current firmware, the reason why is because its burning low quality cd-rs that wont be read in all cd players. I installed a region free firmware and now i cant use the original firmware for it. It says it cant find the drive or something...so am i pretty much screwed now or what?

I think all the tools you need are listed on this thread on cdfreaks.

If Windows won't even recognise the drive you may need to reflash using the DOS based MtkFlash. Ensure you check that you can use it with your drive (the FAQ says it works with most Lite-Ons). There is an explanation on the MtkFlash page of how to check you can use it with your drive.

It looks like you'll then need the XFlash Utility to extract the firmware in BIN format from an EXE Flasher to use with MtkFlash.

You'll have to boot from your Windows disc(s) to get into DOS to use MtkFlash - you can't use it from a Windows command prompt.

All apps mentioned are listed on the first page I reference.

NB: I've never used any of those tools! I have used the EEPROM utility and Omnipatcher.

Good luck.

Edit: I may have gone off on a tangent there. On re-reading, it seems Windows can see your drive, but the flasher is complaining. MtkFlash may still be an answer to that. However an easier answer may be to download the latest official firmware, and use Flash Fix so that you can flash any firmware over any firmware.

Edit 2: Me again. I tested, and Flash Fix wouldn't recognise the firmware, nor would LiteFirm...

So, I found this which has the stock KH0R firmware listed which, if any of the newer firmwares are to go on, should have been fixed so that you can flash forward or back anyway. I currently have a codeguys firmware on my SOHW-832S, which I put through Omnipatcher to allow bitsetting by default.

Can't you just use LtnRPC to remove the region settings?

which of the the stock KH0R firmware should i use? i used one of them and it worked so i then was able to use the firmware from the offical lite on page...so its back to what it should be now anyway. Thanks alot for the help!!

The RAR file had versions P, Q and R in. It wouldn't matter which one you used as they are all for your drive - P being the oldest and R being the most recent (the same version as the official current LiteOn firmware).

I'm glad it worked anyway.

Here's the most complete list of Lite-On firmwares I've found so far
http://codeguys.rpc1.org/firmwares.html
they all include the un-upx-packed versions of the XFlash firmware flashers, and the extracted .BIN images, to make things easier.

This utility
http://digi.rpc1.org/flashfix.htm
can automatically extract the BIN from XFlash executables even upx packed (if you have a compatible upx.exe in the same directory)

On a sidenote, it might be worth trying out firmware from Sony if there is rebranding of your model. I have a Slimtype SOSW-852s and I found the most media compatability by using the latest Sony DW-D56A firmware, patched to original vendor id & product id with OmniPatcher
http://codeguys.rpc1.org/patchers.html

LiteOn LTC-48161H = Sony CRX300E
http://codeguys.rpc1.org/firmwares/combo/s....KYS2.stock.rar

I also found a few other firmwares for your drive here
http://dhc014.rpc1.org/indexOEM.htm

you can use LtnFW to patch from windows, but only when windows detects the drive without errors.
http://upload.cdfreaks.com/ftools/LtnFW.zip
I've found that deleting the hardware in device manager for the DVD/CD drive and the IDE channel it's on, and then rebooting, can fix the problems of undetection unless there was a misflash.