Superdrive no longer recognises blank DVDs

Mac and Disk Utility accept MOST CDs (blank, self-burned or commercial), and accept commercial DVDs, but spins then spits out blank DVDs, and claims some CDS (burned on the same Superdrive) have zero content, though it successfully burned a cheapo CD yesterday and opens it fine today
This has come on suddenly, as everything was fine until about a fortnight ago. I've tried DVD blanks for four or five different manufacturers (including DVDs from a bargain-basement spindle which it happily burned to until this - all brands now spun then ejected.
Tried cleaning laser, repairing permissions, logouts & restarts etc. Can't find anything in these or MacFixit forums that helped.
Any suggestions?
TIA,
Bill

You could try posting this in the hardware forums but I'd say your drive is ready for replacement. Is this the original drive? With the low cost (in most cases) of replacement drives these days it sometimes isn't worth a huge amount of effort working with the drive, especially since there really isn't all that much you can do. The variable nature of the issue suggests something is going in the hardware, rather than a software issue. Burned media is usually the hardest for a drive to read and that's what you're seeing.
Pioneer drives are usually compatible with Macs and have replaced many a Superdrive in the G4 forums.

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