PS2 Laser dying or just bad burning?

[dside]

First of all, I'm sorry for posting three times on the same page (No one answers my posts anyway, excluding the first).

I downloaded and burned Kalisto's DVD Rip of Def Jam Vendetta. I used a nomod patch and everything and it booted perfectly (Along with 6 other burned PS2 games). Now, I've heard rumors of rips of Def Jam Vendetta killing off people's lasers and making them act funny. I hear the laser working hard during gameplay (And only during gameplay, not in menus or anything) but it doesn't seem different from SSX or SSX Tricky's constant loud loading.

After burning and repeatedly playing this game, I've downloaded and burned Kalisto's Aggressive Inline (using three different ripkits), Kalisto's Robotech: Battlecry and Kalisto's The Mark of Kri. They all boot but they stay at the initial black screen and the cd spins steadily. Thinking it was a Kalisto related problem, I downloaded and burned TEG's Hitman 2 rip TWICE and both times recieved the same results as the first 3.

Could this be a problem of the PS2's laser? How could it be, when the laser doesn't seem to have problems loading the disc after booting (In other words, blank screen but no weird noises from the PS2)? I seriously doubt this but I'll believe almost anything to fix things: Did I burn the games wrong or do something wrong during the whole installation/patching process that mucked things up? I burned using CDRWin, adding postgap, closing session, Mode 2, CD-ROM XA. I unrared the games using WinRAR and used the release's corresponding nomod kit, forming a single ISO each time. What could be the problem?

(Sorry for the long post, but I am extremely desperate. PLEASE REPLY!!!!!!)

[sk3tch]

As a quick fix try (at least "quick" versus buying a new laser and replacing your old one) you could burn the games with Alcohol 120%. Although CDRWIN should be plenty sufficient.

You've gone through a lot of good troubleshooting already, just keep eliminating things.

Do retail PS2 games work? Retail DVD movies? etc. etc.

[sk3tch]

Try renting the retail versions of one or all of these games.

[dside]

I just tried out all of my retail games (Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Twisted Metal: Black, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 and Silent Hill 2) and they boot flawlessly without a single sound from the PS2's laser. I also booted my last seven games without problems and noises from the laser (Except for SSX Tricky and Def Jam Vendetta but these games are naturally hard on a PS2 laser). I'm beginning to seriously doubt that my laser has anything to do with this problem, but I'll have to try out the retail versions of the games to make sure.

As for Alcohol 120%, I tried burning Hitman 2 at 2x with Play Station 2 settings but it froze at the Smap Magic Insert Disc screen just as the border turned blue. I wish I knew what the hell the problem is... I just downloaded about 5 or 6 games and their taking up alot of hard disk space!

[sk3tch]

Swap magic??? That is prolly your issue.

Get a real mod...