DRE all the way omg, this suxxx!

So i recently adjusted my pot to 186 and was able to play anything...Then they trow Killer7 on the net. Curious as I was, got myself a copy and tried playing it. It gave me a big fat DRE when i wanted to start a new game. So I looked for a solution. I used the marker trick (mark the top border of the mini-DVD); nothing...I cleaned my lens; nothing yet. So I opened my cube again (thought i would never do that again ever!). I adjusted the POD to 160-230 (values between)...Still nothing AND I'm unable to play any backups!?
Only originals are good to go... =(

Question: does the viper programmer have to be connected to the modchip or not? My flexwire was damaged so i removed the programmer. Now I removed the flexwire too...

grtz & cheers to the GC community that's reliving!!!