Need help with my CD DVD Drive

Question

I'll apologize in advance, because I know this message is going to be confusing, but if you can stick with me to the end, you will understand why.
Basically, the problem is that although my Powermac G4 can read almost any commercial disk, it is unpredictable when it comes to those I have burned. But here is what's going on:
1) Until recently, I was plugging along quite happily with 2 Macs: (a) a PowerMc G4, purchased some time around 1999 and (b) an iMac G3 , which I bought about 2 years later. Also had (and still have) a Mac Notebook, which I bought around 2003-04, but until recently had only used once or twice.
2) Both the Notebook and G3 were running on OS 10.2.8, and the G4 on OS 9.2, which enabled me to continue to work with older files that I still rely on. The G3 and G4 are also networked via ethernet.
Hope I haven't lost you yet, because this is where things get confusing . . .
3) All 3 of the above Macs came with CD drives, but no two are alike. The G4 has a Matshita CD/DVD drive and software version 1.4.5., but no burner. The iMac G3 reads and burns disks, but I can't tell you the software version, because, as I'll explain next, I can't see it at this moment. But it does not read DVDs. The Notebook has a read-only drive (version 1.4.8).
4) All was well until about 8 weeks ago, when the optical drive in the G3 started sticking and finally died with a disk (that belonged to a client) in the drive. After much panic, I managed to retrieve the disk, but meanwhile had learned that the problem probably was due to the treads on the slot drive having worn out, and spoke with several repair shop techs who said it would cost in excess of $300 to repair.
Meanwhile, I had discovered the just-released Mac/ Intel, fell in love with it and decided, "What the heck, I deserve it." So I bought one and immediately started to assemble old data strewn across both the G4 and G3 for burning. At this point, I've been at it for several weeks, but right now am unable to view info because it is connected to the Mac/Intel via firewire.
Since the drive on my old G3 was kaput, I tested the first disk I burned on the G4 and breathed a sigh of relief when, after a relatively long boot up time, it finally popped up on the desktop. When the next disk I burned failed to show up at all, I suspected it might be a bad disk (even though it was a major brand name), so immediately burned another from a new pack of disks. If failed to load, too. But when I tried them on my Notebook, both appeared on the desktop within seconds.
So my question now, is where do I go from here?
Since the G4's ability to read burned CDs had always been flaky, I had figured it might have something to do with the speed of the burner. Now I'm not sure — especially since I burned the latest disks at a slow speed, and as I've descrbed, the results are still erratic. (i.e., At least one of them works on all 3 computers, including my new Mac/Intel but not the G3 with the broken drive . .. and the others only work on the Notebook and Mac/Intel.)
I've also wondered if there's been a software upgrade for the CD/DVD drive on the G4 that will work with OS 9.2. (Really don't want to upgrade that system yet . . especially since I'd like to continue using some of my older apps, which probably will not work on my newest Mac.) For the same reason (i.e., concern that it might prevent old apps from working), I've always ignored the automatic software update announcements that pop up on my screen each month — but when I checked the Apple site earlier this evening I couldn't find any anyway.
I'm hoping someone out there will know what I'm talking about and have a suggestion or two that I can try.
Thanks for your attention.
cs

Answer 1

Thanks, Joseph . . .
Meant to reply yesterday, but I was busy all day, working to save and burn those files. But I did want you to know that I took your advice and picked up a Memorex laser lens cleaner disk. Contrary to the salesman's insistence when I asked, it really did seem designed more for drives that play mainly music CDs than graphics ( the only thing that interests me) . . . because tracks 5-14 all dealt with testing sound and there was no way for me to stop the process (as the narrator suggests) because that's not an option on my Mac.
Consequently, I only ran it once. But I did notice a definite improvement in how quickly icons for my burned disks appeared on my G4 desktop. Only problem was that they would not open on that computer although they do on my iBook, which also has PM 6.5 installed. And while they also show up on my Mac/Intel, it can't read them bcause it does not recognize the application — and according to what I've hust learned, NEVER will. (A warning to anyone else with a stockpile of PM documents they hope to play: Better find and learn another page layout application future Macs will read and start converting those docs asap . . . or at least before your older machine dies.)
Also tried copying the primary document (the other files just contain support data , such as graphic/photos, etc.) — but that failed, too.
So it looks like I'm back to square #1 — but still thinking the problem might somehow be related to the size of the document (139MB) even though my G4 has 920 MB ROM (vers. 8.3.1) and total hard drive space of 95 GB . . . Long ago, I also increased the recommended memory for PM from 5,200k to 50,000k. The only thing that makes me question my premise re: size is that the doc opens without difficulty on my little iMac, which only has a ROM CD drive.
PowerMac G4/IMac G3/iMac Intel/iBook   Mac OS X (10.2.x)