External DVD Drive for Region 2 DVDs help please

Greetings from a Japan . I have a made for Japan Dell PC / Windows 7 with Cyberlink Power DVD pre-installed . The PC's drive I'm pretty sure is locked in to region 1 ( I have had the PC for 4+ years and don't recall if I ever tried to play a region 2 DVD on it . I realize that after 5 switches from region 1 to 2 the drive automatically locks into the last one used ) and I use Windows Media Player when viewing Region 1 discs . I would like to buy a made in Japan external DVD drive for region 2 discs ( prefer this over downloading VLC ) but want to make sure that I can use the PC's drive for region 1 and have the second external drive to use with only region 2 dvds . I'm worried that when I switch from one drive to the next that that will affect the region code on my computer and eat up my 5 only chances to switch region codes , assuming it is "locked "  in to region one . Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks from a PC dummy ! Cheers !