I've got two HP burners that have performed flawlessly for years.
Kinda old. Still work like new.
I also have a couple of Yamaha burners.

The PC I just built for myself has a Lite-On 52x32x52 burner on it and a Sony DVD RW +/- burner. Faaaaassssssttt!!!
It'll rip and burn a CD in less than 3 minutes.



Suggestions:

Buy some other CDs. I am really fond of Verbatim and Fujifilm.
(Look at the coating on the bottom of the CD. It has been my experience that the CDs with the darker blue coating yield better CDs.) A technician said something about the lens and reflected light, etc., etc. (I dunno!) Myth???
(Borrow a different brand CD from a neighbor. If it works, give him one of yours, or, have him try one of yours anyway, to rule them 'out.')

Get Nero Burning Rom. All of my problems disappeared when I bought Nero 6 Platinum. I use this for burning everything. I had Roxio something or the other. Gone. Headaches with it.
Nero will convert mp3 to CD format 'on the fly.' Best money I've spent.
If you aren't planning on burning DVDs, Nero 5 is just as good.
When I started burning CDs, I would have to convert the mp3 to .cda format or .wav, with WinAmp. Those days are gone with Nero.


Lastly, the burner might be 'toast'. It happens. New CD-RWs are fairly cheap, but, as furball69 said, so are DVD burners. Dual format / dual layer burners are comin' on strong now.

 

first thing to do is to put a regular music cd in there and see if it works. if it don't play back, it will not record.