Hacking Shortening Laser Life?

[stivsama]

I think all this is bullshit until some kind of "real" expert tells me that it is not bullshit.

Mythbusters?

 

[acky]

I don't know if any of you have experienced a laser fail before, but both my PS2 and GC lasers have failed.

For the PS2, I had to buy a replacement laser (only $30 AUD, thank goodness) and a laser fix so it will shut the laser down if the voltage provided to it spikes. Although I have no evidence of why my GC laser failed, I suspect it was because of poor quality media, as after running the games for a while, they would eventually stop reading to the point where even Ritek's or Verbatim's would stop reading, and I would have to manually adjust the potentiometer a little lower to get it working again.

The only reason I can think of why a laser would be damaged due to media would be that poor quality media is more difficult to read and the laser has to compensate by adjusting the voltage used to power it.

But to everyone denying it happens, your laser will get damaged by playing backups. It will even get damaged by playing originals, albeit a lot slower. You probably don't have to worry about these things though, because your laser will probably keep working for another 5 years anyway, and $50 is not expensive for a laser.

 

[mark187]

It's bull.

Your Wii wii be way, way beyond obsolete by the time any effects are shown from playing dvd-r. Nobody is bothered about PC drives playing backups and it's exactly the same technology.

 

[arctic_flame]

The only reason I can think of why a laser would be damaged due to media would be that poor quality media is more difficult to read and the laser has to compensate by adjusting the voltage used to power it.

But to everyone denying it happens, your laser will get damaged by playing backups. It will even get damaged by playing originals, albeit a lot slower. You probably don't have to worry about these things though, because your laser will probably keep working for another 5 years anyway, and $50 is not expensive for a laser.

This is silly. The laser "voltage" cannot randomly change. Lasers have a fixed life, and after that, they die. Changing the voltage manually by adjusting the potentiometer will obviously affect the laser life.

 

[arthurkok2]

I think this is all bull until someone can proof for sure that this happens.

The Lazer that the consoles use are no more different than the lazers in a normal DVD-rom drive on the computer! I don't remember anyone saying that those lasers degrade if you use any type of rewriteable media on it.

Lazers have a prescribed lifetime and it will die after that. You can just "change the power of the lazer", it won't "power itself up when it doesnt read", it will simply not read.

No type of games, whether backup or original, "degrade" your laser. The laser simple has a lifetime and in a sense it "degrades" itself...

what a load of crap i want to punch the guy who came up with this theory..it just shows that there are people who believe what ever they read...

thats y im an engineer...



sry, but i get angry whenever i hear something on the lines of "backup game degrade your laser"... LOL

 

[noisound]

...
spend $50 on a retail game instead of spending $50 somewhere down the line for a laser?
...
i was being silly worried about just 1 laser ;P

I think all this is bullshit until some kind of "real" expert tells me that it is not bullshit.
Mythbusters?

LOL yes let them do that work and make it very enjoyable to watch at the same time !
QUOTE(theforbidden1 @ Apr 3 2008, 10:12 AM)

the laser does not make any sound, it's probably other thing insede his drive that does the sound?

yeah i think we get mixed up with the drive noise and laser. here's some example of wii drive noises; everyone will be on the same page ! =]

Wii making a lot of noise, clicking, Help =D
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?act=findpost&...amp;pid=1044084

 

[bluebright]

I like how the PAL region members are spelling "laser" and the NTSC region member are spelling "lazer"...well, everyone except the guy before me.

 

[go185]

I always thought it was laser, not lazer, too...

 

[bytor]

It is laser...it's an abbreviation of Light Amplification by Simulated Emission of Radiation.

Don't get me started on American's bad English lol

 

[bosscolor]

It is laser...it's an abbreviation of Light Amplification by Simulated Emission of Radiation.

Don't get me started on American's bad English lol

You learned my the signification of this word

 

[noisound]

off topic delete plox ;O

it goes, you say tomato, i say tomato
thanks for the definition but also you and everyone else knew what he said, thats good ! laser with a 'z' may not be in the grand poo bah of dictionaries but different spelling must come from slang and writing with personality, preference, without constraints

for lack of a more tasteful example, i searched lazer on google and got 38 million hits. someone must have put lazer on hundreds of different pages !
for what its worth google does ask "Did you mean: laser" lol

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=l...G=Google+Search

get a plugin to check spelling and grammEr for forums ?

silly jokes

important note: not trying to be forceful. you made the spelling comment, i made the other spelling comment ;P

 

[bluebright]

Well I had no idea it was an acronym. So that means its definatly spelt with an 'S'.

 

[Sockslayer]

It is laser...it's an abbreviation of Light Amplification by Simulated Emission of Radiation.

Don't get me started on American's bad English lol

It's actually an abbreviation of Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

 

[Bob Evil]

It is laser...it's an abbreviation of Light Amplification by Simulated Emission of Radiation.

Don't get me started on American's bad English lol

It's actually an abbreviation of Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

Actually, it's Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

 

[bubbleboy]

When the laser can't read the disc it will self power itself up in an effort to read, this will shorten the life of your laser.

 

[arctic_flame]

Where's your proof? It seems to me the laser power depends on the p.d. across it, which is manually adjusted by a potentiometer. (A.K.A Potential divider) I can't see how the laser "powers itself up". Retry, yes. Ability to focus at 2 different distances yes. Magical power increase, no.

 

[zosh]

Magical power increase, no.

Actually, there are some very select drives that do adjust the laser's power if read errors are encountered (see Buffalo's "PowerRead" technique in some Pioneer drives). But this is by no means standard in dvd laser electronics as used in console systems and doesn't contradict your much welcome correction to the urban myth of dvd laser power adjustment.

 

[webjedi]

I guess it does have a Z sound in laser and could understand someone honestly spelling it incorrectly.

I only thought they were making fun and saying "laZer" in the way Austin Powers says it.

But now thinking about it... it's probably bad spellers.

 

[acky]

Woah artctic_flame, have you seen a laser operate before? The laser dot on the disc will adjust its radius until it can read the DVD. I don't think the laser itself has mechanically adjustable lenses. There has to be a voltage or amplitude adjustment somewhere.

 

[arctic_flame]

Woah artctic_flame, have you seen a laser operate before? The laser dot on the disc will adjust its radius until it can read the DVD. I don't think the laser itself has mechanically adjustable lenses.

Uh, yeah. It's something called "Focal length" which is a property of the lens. Which means that to be focused, the laser must be at a certain distance from the "pits" on the disc. Even on pressed discs, the depths of the pits vary slightly. So, the lens moves up and down until it focuses.