So as many of you know, I traded Jim for a low power 200mW 488nm Coherent Sapphire which was making ~79mW max. I got it and it made a max of 40mW and the power supply was reading around 2000 hours, far worse then the original listing. I got pretty pissed and assumed that Jim was not truthful about the power/hours on the unit.
Well today I was working on the unit, and I was connecting the RS-232 cable to the power supply board inside the unit when I bumped a power cable carrying 24VDC from the AC-DC power supply to the laser driver. The laser instantly shot up in power and the beam changed from TEM01 back to the normal TEM00.
The power is now reading around 220mW on my power meter and the internal power reading now agrees after some zeroing adjustment. Additionally, the internal hour meter is now reading ~200 hours, so close to the <1 I was promised that I just don't mind.
That being said, I would like to give a public apology to Smogthemog (Jim). I jumped to conclusions on the laser, and I was wrong to do that. It seems that the problem was caused by an issue neither of us expected, and one that changed during shipping. I believe it is entirely possible that the power supply was giving you false readings, as it was to me.
So Jim, I am sorry for jumping to conclusions and blaming you for what happened, it looks to just be an issue in shipping.