I "killed" a green 700mW DPSS laser that cost me $600 due to my own stupidly and careless. It's been over a year for me. The lesson to is to use extreme patience and caution. I've heard worse horror stories though. In the past I've gone though about 6 diodes just though idle testing but who cares when buy 20 of them for a mere 15 bucks. I still have more of them too. It gets painful when what you are working with is expensive. I'm a bit scared to begin again as a result I think, that was a horrible waste.