On 16 Feb 2012, VanguardLH wrote in
microsoft.public.windows.vista.general:

And here I believed for years that all optical drive manufacturers
were adding a randomized progressively increased deliberate
corruption algorithm in the firmware in their product as an
integral part of planned obsolescence.

They sorta do, in a way. I never get much more than about a year of
moderate use out of any DVD burner any more. It's like they make them
just barely good enough to work until their warranty runs out, then
they die. They've become consumables, like the disk media itself.