Alright, so I am just now getting into the PS2 backup scene. I've heard alot of horror stories from alot of people having trouble w/ different types of media, lasers not reading dvds, DVD-R drives not working, etc., etc.

I got my ps2 the first day it came out in the US. So I'm guessing that's a ver1. Are the version1 ps2's widely known for shitty lasers that go bad or what? I've not yet had any problems with it, although a few of my friends have (they would read cd's, not dvd's, but then they cleaned the lens with ammonia and it worked apparently). I am about to get a messiah2pro installed. Will I have any likely problems?

Thank you very much.

Are you chipping it yourself? If not then good luck finding someone to do the install. Everyone I have seen won't touch anything under a version 4 because the installs on V1-3 are really tricky. If you are doing it yourself, I hope you have some really good soldering skills and a steady hand.