Diodes going LED

Hi guys, Im having some problems with LD's going LED after only being used a few times. This is my first laser but I don't want to keep having to change the diode.
The LD's im using are Rohm RLD65PzB5 Reds with the current measured on the battery side of the driver of 190mA, allowing about 20mA for the driver the LD should only be getting 170mA which is well below the manufacturers max rating of 200mA. I would have thought it should have a good life at this setting.
Could it be due to the diode overheating ?
There are pics on my post in the welcome thread.
Any ideas will be much appreciated.
Thanks.

http://laserpointerforums.com/f37/hello-everyone-uk-53191.html#post745903

What kind of driver is it?

It's usually a better idea to measure the current on the diode side (depending on what kind of driver it is, of course) to see what the diode is actually getting, rather than trying to guesstimate what current the driver is taking.

This is the driver im using. Should i use a dummy load to set the current or measure it directly. Is there a risk of blowing the LD from intermittent connections while measuring current with a multimeter on the diode side of the driver.

Are you using the same driver or do you have a couple of them experiencing the same problem?
If only one I would think maybe a bad pot. A bad spot might have less resistance thereby allowing more current to pass. You might not even have time to notice it before poof!

Just a thought.

Rule #1 in shooting trouble, divide and conquer.
Rule #2 - compare with another.

Onion