IMac 20" suddenly writes tons of DVD+R coasters.

I've had a 20" 2GHz iMac G5 since summer and for months it was a champ, writing DVD-/+Rs without errors. But suddenly its DVD writing has been terrible, with perhaps a 20% failure rate. I have not switched brands of DVD+R. (I use Sony and Memorex) In the past I was able to run lots of apps, iTunes, surf the web, etc and no matter what I threw at it, I could still write DVD+Rs while running other tasks. I use Toast 6 and 7 Titanium to write DVD+Rs. (I usually use + but sometimes -) The drive is a UJ-845 and I have 2GB of RAM. Recently I've been rebooting the system before DVD writing, though I'm not sure if it helps. Often times the drive writes about 80% of the disc then just stalls with a frustrating Hardware sense key error or some other generic media error. What can I do to get my DVD writing back to normal? I just repaired permissions but have had the same result of 80% complete DVD coaster writes. I'm tempted to think that this all started happening after I first used a DL disc, but I that's probably just my imagination. Any suggestions appreciated, thanks!

This may or maynot be your issue.
I ran into a similar problem after I was doing a lot of back-up. I found that after coping 4 or 5 movies it would just stall out and I tried rebooting and repairing permissions, No Go.
So here is how I resolved my issue.
First all of the projects I finished with and I had good copies I trashed the VideoTS folders, then I emptied the trash.
I still was not aware that several of these files and folders were still being stored to some degree in cache files. So I ran these 3 free utilities and WA LA I was good to go again for about 4 or 5 movies and had to repeat again.
Macjanitor.
http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_hill/downloads.html
Cache Out X.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14850
Onyx.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20070
This version of Onyx is for 10.4
If you need one for earlier Operating System, go to Google and type in Onyx for 10.3.9 or whatever you need.
Cheers Don

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Thanks Bengt W for your attention to this matter. So much appreciated. And thanks for putting me right on the aim of forums (new to this). Although, you may regret asking for more information. I've added everything I can below.
The process I used is as follows:
Import recorded clips of between 5 and 15minutes each from my video recorder into i
Edit the clips (remove unwanted start and endng)
Add title to front of clips
‘Share’ them to ‘movie’ (export using QuickTime)folder in .mov format individually
Open iDVD and ‘create new project’
Select ‘favourite’ theme that I have set up forall my work dvd’s (this has been used successfully many times and I’ve triedwithout using the favourite them).
Add 2 submenus for each group of clips
Select submenu - drag and drop between 3 – 6 clips in each of the twosubmenus
Change title colours on clips
Dragand drop image into drop zones where required
In‘map’ view I check for any yellow warnings before burning to disc
In an attempt to remedy the problems I’ve tried the following:
Try new DVD discs
Try different themes (favourites and standardones)
Change images in drop zones
Start whole process again even from importingfrom camera again
Two other completely different computers (iMacand MacBook) with iDVD
Go to apple shop and use their computers to doin iDVD
Try with one clip and no menu pages added
Use a clip that I already have that did notoriginate from my camera
Turn computer off and restart
New hard drive
New optical lense (thing)
New DVD burner
Saving to disc image rather than dvd disc
Other points:
I also have a ‘flip’ and ‘iPhone’ whereI’ve imported footage camera which, although limited, records and makes videoclips and burns them to DVD through iDVD without problem.
For example, I have just gone through steps 5 - 11 using some clips that were already imported from my iphone to iPhoto and dragged across. I used a theme that I've used before which has failed and added one sub menu page where the clip went. It burned to disc image successfully.
The startup disc, I believe will have no space issues asit’s a new hard drive with no use apart from this. That could have been an issue before (I didn’t check it) butnot now.
Other technical stuff that I don't understand but you may:
I have…… Mac OS X Version 10.6.7 with all updates onit. Processor 2.8 GHz Intel Corei7. Memory 4GB 1067 MHz DDR3.
iDVD version 7.1.1
HardwareOverview:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac11,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Memory: 4GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: IM111.0034.B02
SMC Version (system):            1.54f36
OPTIARCDVD RW AD-5680H:
Firmware Revision:     3AHB
Interconnect:    ATAPI
Burn Support:   Yes (AppleShipping Drive)
Cache:    2048KB
Reads DVD:    Yes
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Write Strategies: CD-TAO,CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: Toshow the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh
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Eagerly awaiting your reply.
Jayne

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Things That Can Keep Your Computer From Slowing Down
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Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions Pre-Lion
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Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
SuperDuper!
SyncTwoFolders
Synk Pro
Synk Standard
Tri-Backup
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Hey Momita,
Follow the steps in the article below if you need help troubleshooting your built-in SuperDrive:
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http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2801
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