HELP? DVD's don't work

[clumzy]

I have a problem and could use some of your expert advice.

I had a Magic 2 installed by a local professional installer, he did 3 at the same time and my 2 friends haven't had any problems.

I don't have the SCPH## handy but I got it in Nov. of 2002 brand new. I think it was SCPH30001?

When I got it back I was able to play CDR's, DVDR's, and original DVD games no problem. Worked great! But right off the bat I noticed that it would NOT play DVD Movies. I used the same boot procedure as booting DVDR games and it would never boot.

Anyways, fast forward to Jan 2003 (3 months of maybe 10 hours of play a week), I started to notice that when playing my Vice City DVDR it would sometimes hit the "Loading" screen. Then one day it began to not load DVDR games sporatically .. sometimes it would, sometimes not. CDR's were fine. So I got worried I took it back to my guy.

His Prognosis:

He tested to make sure he could not load DVDR's or DVD originals. None would boot for him. DVD movies wouldn't either.

He removed the Magic 2 chip and tried to load DVD originals. NO WORKY!

He's in the process of replacing the laser and slider assembly with a used one and try that.

WHAT do you think the problem is? Ever seen this before? Your advice is greatly appreciated.