I got a PS2 for Xmas, too! Well, sort of...
A buddy of mine lent me his PS2 as he was heading out of country for the holidays, so I thought it might be nice of me to install one of those mod-chips for him in return for the favor. Except I ended up destroying the thing during the install--or so I thought.
After I had already bought him a replacement, I finally got around to taking the thing apart and removing the chip I installed and guess what? The thing boots up and works just fine! (Even with a couple of very small components missing from the mainboard!)
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Chris.