Bad Lasers on New PS2's?

[ihaveanosebleed]

True, You don’t know what you’ll get but I think the percentage is way higher than 10% for getting an unreliable PS2. I keep saying no two lasers are the same, and that goes for burners and media as well. For cheap media, you might say no two sectors are the same.

They started selling V9’s around here last X-mas time, by March I think I’d adjusted more v9’s than all other PS2 versions put together. All the lasers I looked at tested over 1400 ohms on the DVD Pot and struggled to read a good Ritek burn. 1200 ohms had them reading good. I also tested all the lens coils in concern for the driver IC’s that were frying on some, mostly European consoles, I never found any bad coils.

I keep some burns of various quality around for evaluating PS2’s and I can tell you the typical V9 laser is nothing like the typical V7 laser even after adjusting. I have not confirmed this myself but from what I hear the V9 lasers are not ‘C’ type nor are they compatible for swapping.

[puppeteer666]

yea i's say buy a ps2 at eb refurb.
most those guys at eb are cool so they will let ya find the version ya want.
that's if ya have an eb retailer near you that is.

[cheryl771]

I got a v9 too. I got it the first week of june. It just started clicking a few days ago. I was told to reflash the chip. I did and it hasn't clicked since but I still have my suspicions of dying laser.

[seaneyb2003]

well 1-4 have crappy laser 400b 5-8 have 400c or type r lasers. And 9-10 have sanyo lasers

I feel that the v5-8 lasers are best as they read any media i throw at them.

i love my v7 still running strong!

[lufcfan]

Clicking is never a good sign. Keep your eye on it, and if it gets worse, then start to panic

[skub]

hahahahahahhahahahahahhahaha, thats ****ing hilarious

[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.