Phillip Remaker wrote:
This is a longshot, but:

I had an older SCSI drive once which would not burn a CD after a while.
Updating the firmware solved the problem. My theory was the optical
components drift out of spec with age, and the newer firmware corrected for
that. Or maybe it was just media compatability. 8-)

So see if there is newer firmware.

There was, and I installed it. No change :-(

Once burned, it reads the burned discs fine?

Yes, it accepts any disc *other* than a blank in 15 seconds or less, and
reads them without a problem.

I think that ll it does when you insert it is to read the ATIP...

I'd forgotten the acronym, so I said "blank media information", but yes,
I believe it reads the ATIP and calibrates itself accordingly. This
appears to be the problem area.

Thanks for your input.