Hi Daniel,
You can try one of the cleaner CD's or the can of air to try to clean the
inside of the drive.
It could be that the drive is dying. I have had three Sony drives die in  the
fashion you describe.
Burning ware I like Nero or NTI. I do not know if there is any freeware
other than windows XP.

Hope this helps

                Bud Jarman

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                     support at our newest website:
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