to burn a CD the burner needs to calibrate a lot of parameters to burn the media successful. The parameters differ from brand to brand and even from type of media to type of media. A lot of calibration data from many different brands and types of media are included in the firmware of the burner. Some brands and types of media are not included. This leads to the message you got, if the burner doesn't know how to handle this media correct.
At first i would buy some discs from a brand that is definitely supported by the burner and try to burn with these discs. Information about the brands and types of media supported should be available from Matshita.
Another reason why you get this message is, what David already mentioned, that the lens is dirty. So it could be possible that smoke from the wood burning stove made the lens dirty. If the drive cleaning disc works, i would use a Q-tip and some isopropyl alcohol to clean the lens by myself. But be warned, if you are not careful enough, you can damage the burner seriously."
CLEANING THE LENSE has worked fine for me and my MBP15"". I followed the IFIXIT OpticalDriveReplacementInstructions] and then continued with THIS LINK.
I had this exact same problem. When it happened, I was always plugged into a power strip or external power outlet. You need to make sure you are plugged into a wall outlet. I've been burning ever since and never had a problem.
"With a new drive failing after only a few uses, I would look more to the media used rather than the drive itself. Are you using the same brand of CD to burn now as before? The color of the CD can cause a difference as well, although these days that is less of an issue.
