PS2 laser coil question

My biggest problem with them is that you can't even read the stickers on the pickup. You might've as well uploaded pictures of an actual potato

 

Why did you have to replace the metal arm with the plastic one? Historically, the plastic parts were known to wear out, causing reading problems.

 

I actually replaced it because the metal one would bend like hell.

The stickers have just a bunch of numbers and letters written on them:

Green sticker - 632527BA8
Pink sticker - CCB56CBF4

Dunno what are these for.

 

http://psx-scene.com/forums/f110/brand-new-laser-disk-read-error-115952/ This thread has a picture of the old/early SF-HD7 laser. Look how the laser diode is assembled with a clip and glue instead of the longer shield you have on your laser. Also the top plastic cover is smaller.

The stickers have the default adjustment values for the CD/DVD laser pots and identification of manufacture lot/date for the whole pickup.

Edit2: Only SCPH-5000x is supposed to use the metal arm.

 

So the older HD7 that I have (yes,this was originally a early HD7 with the small plastic cover - I just happened to swap the covers between some dead v10 HD7 and this one) will work without problems on the 5000x? In my experience v10 consoles had HD7s.

 

But the laser in your picture is of the second model. Look the bottom of the laser at the PSX scene thread, it's different.

 

I think I mentioned this in the post above the one I'm replying to:

"this was originally a early HD7 with the small plastic cover - I swapped the small cover with another HD7 from a dead v10 (so second model)"

And not easy to spot from my pictures but the thing is that the difference between my laser and a second model HD7,is that the second model has the body (sans the plastic cover) made out of something black (and shiny to the surface) while the earlier v5-v7 HD7s have the same kind of stone-like textured material,just like the KHS lasers.