Bad Lasers on New PS2's?

[ihaveanosebleed]

There seems to be a few posts about V9’s clicking now and I remember fixing a V9 lasers that would get stuck trying to return to the hub. The sled sticking would cause the worm gear to produce a horrible sound.
This V9 was quite dusty inside so I cleaned everything and greased the sled rods. I noticed the V9 lasers have a flimsy metal arm that runs to the worm gear with plastic clip and this one looked like it was bent up slightly so that it was providing very little pressure on the worm. The other PS2 versions have a more rigid plastic arm with metal worm pins. I took the laser out and bent the metal arm down a bit to provide more pressure. Seemed to work good after that and I’ve never had it come back so it must be doing fine.

V9’s aren’t too bad after doing some drive tweaks. It would be my second choice over a V7 and the “C” type laser. It will be interesting to see how their laser age during the next year or so. The high factory POT settings mighty indicate a strong life, requiring less voltage to operate. Then again it might indicate that the V9 laser IC can’t handle voltage as good as a “C” Type laser.