CD/DVD recorder can't 'see' blank discs

[sparkie78]

I've got an HP media center PC with a pentium 4, 1.28GB of ram, running Win XP media center edition with service pack 3. I've got a samsung cd/dvd read only drive (no problems) and a NEC cd/dvd read/write drive. I can read/write cd's, no problem. It will read commercially made dvds. I've written to dvds in the past, but not many. The NEC drive will read about 1/2 of them. The others it doesn't see, nor will it see any blanks (either dvd+r or dvd+rw format). It reports the device is not ready or that there is no media present. I've tried updating drivers, unloading it from device manager, and have installed a new burning program. Since it works with some dvds, I can't help but think it's some kind of configuration error. I'd hate to spend the time & money to replace the drive if it's not bad. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[Broni]

How old is that drive?
DVD reading laser may be going out and writing laser may be out.

Since it works with some dvds

Define "some".
What burning program do you use?

[sparkie78]

Drive is almost 6 yrs old. Burned DVDs using sonic 'record now', which came with the machine. The drive will read all commercially made DVDs, it will read my 'recovery' discs and a data disc containing some files I backed up. Something odd - last nite I inserted a dvd I burned backup files to and it read it just fine. Then I tried a different backup disc and 2 blanks and it didn't read any of them. I reinserted the first disc it originally read and now it wouldn't read it. You might be right about the drive going bad. Rather odd that device manager and some other diagnostic programs I ran all report the drive as working properly. Is it possible the writing laser would work on CDs and not DVDs?

[Broni]

Yes. Your drive has 4 lasers: CD read, CD write, DVD read, DVD write.
6 years is a long time for optical drive.
Your symptoms are typical for failing drive.

[sparkie78]

4 different lasers, huh? Boy, just when you think you know everything...
I'd like your advice on replacing the drive, if you don't mind. The two drives are currently connected with a single IDE ribbon with 2 connectors - the first going to the writeable drive (set as the master) and the end connector to the read only drive (slave). My motherboard has a spare SATA port (the hard drive uses the 1st one). Would it be advantagous to buy a drive utilizing the SATA (I've read that it's better than IDE)? If so, would it cause a problem copying from the IDE drive to the SATA drive?

[Broni]

In case of an optical drive, there is no advantage of SATA drive vs IDE drive.
SATA is usually more expensive.
There is also no reason for having two optical drives, unless you have some special needs.