Demonstration of defective KES-400A laser module

Описание: SRSLY, read the whole description before commenting. I reserve the right to mock you roundly if you ask about something already addressed here, or behave stupidly in some other way. Cheers!

This short clip demonstrates a defective KES-400A unit, found in some older PS3 BluRay drives (the one in the video is from a CECHG01). The blue laser has failed, but the red one still works. The KES-400A unit's laser is a special canister that contains 3 actual lasers (red, IR, and violet). The violet/blue one seems to be very unreliable (even the OEM Sony-sourced ones in first-gen PS3s).

Once the drive "feels" a disc (mechanically), it pulses the lasers in turn (perhaps as a redundant disc presence check, or to determine disc type), starting with violet. If the violet laser has failed, and you insert a BluRay disc, it will not start spinning (this behavior is one of the most common symptoms of a dead laser).

The easiest fix for a dead laser (which some people call a "lens") is a new laser module (KES-400A, sometimes called a "deck", though, IMO, the deck is the "floating" thick-gauge stamped steel platform on which the rails rest, in which the laser module is suspended). The new module can just be swapped in place of the defective one with a simple procedure that's already widely available (so I probably won't bother to do a video of it).

It's also possible to replace just the laser canister. The part you want is 'SLD6562TL' manufactured by Sony-Shiroishi. Resellers can be found on the Web; I can't endorse any at present.

Hearsay about good ways to kill your laser:
pause the game (something about a firmware bug that drives the laser hard while games are paused, thus decreasing its lifespan very rapidly)
FF/RW BD movies (not sure why, but it's been claimed that this also wears the laser much faster than normal)

(Corrections welcomed; I'm not the world's foremost expert on PS3, just enthusiastic about repairing defective things).


Update, based on a question from 'ildanny80':

For complete drives, try Knights Gaming Repair. I haven't bought from them before, but I've heard good things. You can buy a complete replacement drive by adding a drive and a matching laser to your shopping cart. Here's a link for the drive (subject to change without notice):

http://knightsgamingrepair.com/ps3-pa...