Help! Should I return this writer?

[Timoth]

I thought about posting this in the newbie forum, but thought it might fit better here. I recently purchased a Pacific Digital 8x writer from Office Max (at the $79 sale price). It turned out to be a BTC 1008. I have upgraded the firmware to 54 using the link on their page. I have not yet tried to burn a DVD, but I burned a few CD's ok, and it plays DVD's ok as well. The problem is when I play CD's. If I put a disc in the tray, and it auto starts, it will start spinning, and then at 12-13 seconds into the first track it starts spinning more intensely (if that makes sense). This causes a dead spot at 12-13 seconds every time a CD is played like this. If I stop it and start it over without ejecting, it is fine.
Now I don't need this to be a player, so if the problem won't affect the DVD burning, then I might not worry about it. I've read a lot of comments about BTC saying it's pretty much hit or miss that if it burns DVD's ok, I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't take any chances. But I also don't want something to go wrong down the road, and there's the chance that if I exchange it I would get one of the PD LiteOns. Has anybody encountered this before, or know what the problem is? I have a PIII 1gig, with 512 RAM, and am running XP. While I have a little computer knowledge, there's a lot I don't know, and I am a total newbie at the whole DVD writer thing, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
Tim

[RickBerg663]

I would exchange it for a Pioneer. I own 3 of them and they have been extremely reliable. Using good media (Ritek) I have never made a coaster in over 200 burns.