Software :: Unable To Burn CDs Through ITunes

It seems that my CD drive is not working properly. I am trying to burn some audio CDs using basic CD-Rs through iTunes. I used to have no trouble doing this whatsoever. Now, for some reason, when I go to burn a CD, I am simply unable to do so. The drive reads the blank CD and asks what I want to do with it, as usual. Then, when I create a playlist and hit "Burn Disc," the program seems to be going through all the necessary steps: checking media/playlist and initializing burning, but then it ejects the CD and I get an error message saying "The attempt to burn a disc failed. The device failed to respond properly. Unable to recover or retry."

Could this have anything to do with the file types I am trying to burn (audio files bought/downloaded through the iTunes store) or the type of CD-R I am using (they are basic, Verbatim� recordable compact discs). Or could it be a simple case of computer settings? I haven't changed a thing since I was able to burn discs, or at least not to my knowledge.

Furthermore (and this is the part that really worries me), my drive seems to have become selective in reading discs. DVDs always seem to work, but there are certain CDs that the drive just ejects and refuses to read. It spins a little, makes a couple weird and unfamiliar noises, and then gets spit out, without ever having been detected by the computer.

I have never dropped my laptop or done anything that I think would have damaged the hardware, so it is very confusing to me that this would be happening.