I bought my first PS2 when it first launched in Japan. Paid a shitload of money to be one of the first (At least in Sweden) to have a machine. You think i was mad that after a modchip was released that actualy worked, i found out that my laser was borked and DVD games refused to boot.
Most of their earlier machines have shitty lasers, nay, nearly all PS2 have shitty lasers. If you use cheap media or use the machine for a prolonged time, you are killing it slowly. FFS, when they released the Slim version the lasers actually melted when people played GTA - SA or any other disc intensive game for more then a couple of hours.