I’ve never personally come across a burned LA chip myself but I’ve had to do all those other things on many V9 stations.

Still keeping an eye on my v9
 

Looks to be a heat issue with my v9. I moved it to another location and blow a regular fan on it. This is so lame that these ps2's are so touchy that I have to resort to this. Could be more in addition to that though. Thank you ynos for the cheap parts!