burning failed

I have been wasting a hours and hours over the past month trying to solve this issue. I am putting this post because I found a fix that could save you a lot of time if you were to have the same problem.

I have a laptop Gateway T6859u running vista 64 home made by ACER
The dvd writer is an optiarc dvd rw ad-7563a ata device

My issue is the following:
when I tried to burn a DVD-R for a recovery disk using "gateway recovery management" I get the following error:
"
Error code: 9004
Burning failed. Please insert a blank CD/DVD into the optical drive and press OK
"
I did that and wasted 10th of DVDs.
I tried other software such as Nero without more luck.
I tried to find new drivers from microsoft web site (no luck) and after a lot of research found that the optiarc drive was made by sony (and nec I guess) but could not get from their web site ( Sony eSupport) any drivers because "their knowledge base is going under maintenance.

Because some threads linked error 9004 to registry problems, I did run ccleaner but it did not resolve my issue.

I went and bought a samsung external DVD writer and was able to write my recovery disks on it.

I was using data right DVD-R and went by Verbatim DVD-R but still got the same error.

So I decided to use my warranty to send it for a fix. But then the support tech guy from my warranty (bankers warranty group) stated that if it was a software problem I would have to pay for it and that upset me more for all the time and energy I had already wasted. He asked me if I had reinstalled the original OS. I said no and that I would not because it definitely looks like a big additional waste of time since I kept it uptodate and I would have to reinstall all my softwares and theirs updates. No workable advice from them anyway.

The options I was considering were:
1) to buy a new hard drive and install on it the original OS and try then to burn the recovery disks (at least even if it would not work I could keep the other drive with all the other softwares and updates before sending it for a fix in case they would have reinstall everything). I would keep it for hard drive back up in case of a future hypothetic hard drive failure (I should do that anyway)
2) buy other kind of DVD such as DVD-RW or brands
3) sending the laptop for repair and take the risk of having to pay for a fix
4) try to burn again but at a lower speed but their is no option to select in gateway recovery management

I search windows help for option 4) and found that I could select the burning speed in windows DVD maker (in start search). I selected lowest and tried again with gateway recovery management with both brands of DVD-R.

It worked for all my DVD-R.

I hope it will help some folks who do not have my patience and determination.