Slim w/ Broken UMD

So my friend is selling his Slim, currently have a phat 3.90-M33. Its a really good deal, since the slim is in perfect condition except it wont read UMDs. My main questions is when i hack it, will games work if i put a random UMD in the drive even though it wont read? or will i be screwed out of playing even my homebrew off the memory card unless i replace the UMD drive?

Get a replacement UMD Laser.

http://gameasylum.com

yeah i found http://store.richspsxparts.com/newpspumdlaf.html which has every part needed, but i wanted to know if homebrew would still work w/o the fix....or if i would HAVE to replace the laser...

Homebrew and ISOs will still work, just not UMDs

Just use the No-umd modes

sounds good to me. thanks!