Tried EVERYTHING - Won't read blanks.. Any Help Appreciated!

[db_DEE_db]

Hello everyone, I am hoping that someone.. anyone can help me with getting my computer to read blank cds and dvds again. Here is the short version of the story of what I have done to date, so you know what I have tried.

Just before Christmas, my burner stopped reading blank cds and dvds. I was in no great hurry to get it fixed at the time but by Feb, it became seriously annoying and I needed to get stuff burned. So, after re-installing whatever might have been on the BenQ disc that I would have needed, it still didn't work. Here is a little about my burner..

It is a BenQ
listed as: atapi dvd dual 16x4x12
My main program I use to burn is: Sonic

I took it in to the shop to get it cleaned/fixed/whatever it would take to work and this is what they did.. They changed the burner, different brand but same functionality.. thinking it was just the burner had gone bad. Brought it home.. and guess what, same problem!

Took it back in the next day and told them lets do this right and go over everything. We put my original burner which I kept into another machine and behold, IT WORKED!. So it was not the burner. Tried my original burner back in my computer and nothing. "Please insert blank" still the word of the day..

He told me to leave it there, which I did for a week, cause they had a few jobs to do and I wanted it done right, so no rush. A week later when I went to pick it up, this is what had been done..

-Replaced the motherboard as he stated there were problems with it..
-Computer completely backed up and wiped, and reinstalled windows.
(Oh.. I run Win Xp with Sp2)
-Only brought back over clean (virus free) files back onto my computer from back up drive they used.. and the amount I transfered back over were not many at all. I basically started over with what I had on cd's from long before the burner stopped working.
-They installed Roxio as the default burner.

Ok.. so I go in to pick it up with my burner back in my computer, a fresh day one computer to work with, a new motherboard driving the system.. and them saying it's ready to go. I told them lets try burning a cd before I take it home to find out it was no good.. and sure enough, it was having problems recognizing the blank cd, BUT it took 1 restart, 1 roxio update, 2 more restarts and BAMM.. Roxio was able to finally recognize the blank cd and burn me a folder of music that was brought back from the back up drive they used.

I am thinking FINALLY IT WORKS, so I get it home, and tried to burn another cd.. it was having problems reading the blank, in and out.. then it just stopped recognizing it again after getting an error while trying to burn a cd at home. I put in a blank dvd to see if it read that blank.. nothing. So here I sit again, computer completely redone and STILL can't get the burner to recognize the blanks. Everytime I try to update the driver (and I have read what confus-ed has been saying over and over about there really being no drivers) but I tried for the hell of it just incase and it just says there is nothing out there that is better than what I have in the cpu now. I can take the computer back into this guy cause after spending $350 there, still being at square one leaves me feeling uhh "pissed", especially when he is as stumped as me. So sorry for the "short" story lol, but this is my problem to date.

ANY further help / ideas/ remedies would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you for your time.