I think this thread is bad luck! After reading it this morning, I was measuring the output of my red burner and I made myself a new LED. I think my cap had some charge which I forgot about. O well it lasted pretty long for my first laser project.
i killed 2 reds out a cheap pointer a red from a dvd, and im not sure may have killed a few IR's (kinda hope i did, after not realising they were IR, was really wondering why all the cds i were opening werent working)