DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-R DL all are ejected again- no burning!

Question

My iMac reads DVDs and CDs fine, has burned two DVD+R DL already but whenever I insert another blank DVD, it makes weird noises and ejects it after some time. No error message, nothing, just ejecting. Have tried with DVD-R and DVD+R as well. Does anyone have this problem, too? Can it really be the brand?

Answer 1

Same problem but only with DVD-RW also.
My iMac G5 (iSight) has a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-K05 superdrive and won't recognize blank DVD-RW and won't erase them.
It WILL read and write CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, and DVD-DL, and oddly enough will READ an already burned DVD-RW, but can't erase it or burn a blank DVD-RW.
I haven't tried any of the +R or +RW media.
I've Google this drive looking for a firmware update but can't find one.
Here's the drive specs:
PIONEER DVD-RW  DVR-K05:
  Firmware Revision: Q523
  Interconnect: ATAPI
  Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
  Cache: 2000 KB
  Reads DVD: Yes
  CD-Write: -R, -RW
  DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL
  Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
  Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
  Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
  Media: No
If I try to erase burned DVD-RW in Toast 7, I get the following message:
The drive reported an error:
Sense Key = ILLEGAL REQUEST
Sense Code = 0x30, 0x05
CANNOT WRITE MEDIUM - INCOMPATIBLE FORMAT
Disc Utility gives me this message:
Optical Erase failed with the error:
Optical Erase Failed
This is the first time since I've had this iMac that I've tried a DVD-RW so I can't know if it was working when I first installed 10.4.3. I've incrementally updated to 10.4.7 so could it be one of the updates changed something?
Apple recommend re-installing the OS using Archive and Install, which may be my next step if someone out there can tell me that they suspect one of the OS updates.