Multiple burn errors w/ multiple programs

Hello all I hope that you can help me with this,

I'm on a Powermac G.5 dual 1.8 with an upgraded superdrive running 10.5.6

About 3 days ago I noticed that I couldn't burn a dvd using Roxio's Toast 10. I would receive a medium write error.
I tried a second time with the same results.
I then moved to itunes which I have updated to the fullest version and tried to burn a playlist to cd and also received a medium write error.
Finally I tried to burn the original dvd using disk utility and it almost worked up until it hung on finishing. The funny thing about the run with disk utility was that the disk played in my home dvd player with no problems despite quitting the burn prematurely.

To combat this issue I have searched multiple sites including this one as well as Apple's support site, and others.
I have tried everything from switching brands of media (even though the brands I have been using have worked fine for months) to purchasing a drive cleaner. I have even created a test user with standard privileges with no luck.

When I insert the cleaning disk it makes noise like it's trying to spin up, but it just gets spat back out after a bit.
Now no discs can be read apparently.

Here is the system profiler read out for my superdrive:
DVDRW PATA 20X20X12X:

Firmware Revision: 9A3A
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Generic Drive Support)
Profile Path: None
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RAM, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds

As I stated this is an upgrade from the stock optical drive that came with my G5. It' is less than a year old, and has worked fine up until now.

I'm guessing that the drive has failed, but I want to be sure.

Thank you all in advance for any help, and sorry this has been so long winded, but I wanted to provide as much info as possible


Craig

 

Thanks for the response. That is what I suspected.

Craig