I should chide you for resurrecting a dormant thread, but now that you've done it...

My condolences on your burner's demise. I have the same model, and it's still fully functional, although I'm a relatively light user -- according to my logs, I've done about 150 burns (about 5-6 per month) since I purchased the drive in November 2005. I've had just one problematic burn with it, and that was caused by my having way too many programs running. Overall, I'm satisfied with the drive, but based on your report and my past experience with a Yamaha CD-RW drive (lasted 2 1/2 years), I fear the end may be near for my Sony as well.