G3 iMac 333Mhz not reading CD's burned on my G5 iMac!

Question

I'm trying to refurbish my older G3 iMac & install Panther, for a friend of mine who can't afford a computer. I've suddenly noticed that CD's I've burned on my G5 iMac are unreadable to the older iMac, giving a message that the disc is unrecognizable, and do I want to erase it. It reads many other CD's just fine, original application CD's, the Panther install CD's, including some I burned on a previous eMac I had. I called Apple about this in a panic, and they couldn't imagine what could be wrong, they had never heard of such a thing. All they could say was that the drive must be going bad. But it reads all other CD's just fine--just not the ones I've recently burned on my new G5 iMac. Then they said that maybe there is something wrong with the CD's I'm using, but they can be read just fine by my new iMac and many other computers, including the old eMac that my daughter now has. I even take files to CopyMax for printing on those same CD's and the PC's read them just fine.
Apple suggested that I try purchasing other CD's and try out different brands. Meanwhile, the stack of 50 that I just purchased, I won't be able to use with this old iMac. They are Maxell's by the way, and the label says CD-R. Does anybody out there with a similar 333Mhz G3 iMac with a tray loading drive, have problems reading certain brand burned CD's from another computer? Or have you heard of such a thing? I hate to keep buying different brands to see which ones will be readable by the old iMac. Any advice you have would be appreciated. Thanks!
Kristy

Answer 1

Thank you both, dreed and Ron, for your advice and comments. It's good to know I'm not the only one with this problem. And since I am just getting this iMac 333 ready for my friend to use, I don't have the money to replace the optical drive for her. I will try Charismac Discribe. Is it a shareware program? And is it very expensive? I still have some CD's I've burned on my eMac, that can be read by the iMac 333 just fine--for me it just seems to be CD's burned on my new G5 iMac that won't work--or Maxell's, because this is the first time I've used that brand. I usually buy Memorex.
Ron, it looks like we took the same computing path. The description of your two machines match exactly the configuration of my last two Macs, right down to the amount of memory in each of them & everything. Maybe a G5 iMac is in your future! These second generation ones are really wonderful! I know how you feel about the slot loading iMac, though. This is the first time I've had a slot loader. I have found that I can put my thumb in the center hole, and rest my pointer finger gently on the outside edge, without touching any of the surface, and slip it right into the slot pretty easily, then removing my thumb as the drive pulls it into the slot. It took me a while to figure that out. It helps that the slot is vertical instead of horizontal, although it might work with a horizontal slot, if you put your pointer finger in the hole and rest your thumb on the outside edge. Think about it. So tell me where to find Charismac Discribe. Oh, I can probably just google it. Thanks for the tip!
Kristy