Emprex DVDRW 1016UI not recognized even after installing P..

Mac Mini 1.25 Ghz PowerPC G4 10.4.11
External Emprex DVDRW 1016UI USB CD/DVD writer with latest updates
It seems to be random whether the mac can see the Emprex.
I installed PatchBurn 4.0.5
I tried Burn 1.71u (13)
Most times, it wants to write to the internal Matshita CD-RW CW-8124
drive.
It once complained of error 0x80020025 when I inserted a disc.
I need to be able to write DVDs. I have tried Tuffdisc, Datawrite,
Datasafe and TDK brands.
Most of time (as with my USB memory stick) the mac will ONLY see the
external usb drive if I reboot the machine with a "normal" (non-blank)
disc in it.
Spent a good couple of hours googling all the above - the few times
the machine sees the external drive, it says it's not writable.
Is there any way to "force" the mac to mount this drive as writable?
Thanks

Anyone? Anyone at all? If not, any idea where I could get some help?
Thanks

On Jan 20, 11:33 am, digitaltoast wrote:
> Mac Mini 1.25 Ghz PowerPC G4 10.4.11
> External Emprex DVDRW 1016UI USB CD/DVD writer with latest updates
> It seems to be random whether the mac can see the Emprex.
> I installed PatchBurn 4.0.5
> I tried Burn 1.71u (13)
> Most times, it wants to write to the internal Matshita CD-RW CW-8124
> drive.
> It once complained of error 0x80020025 when I inserted a disc.
> I need to be able to write DVDs. I have tried Tuffdisc, Datawrite,
> Datasafe and TDK brands.
> Most of time (as with my USB memory stick) the mac will ONLY see the
> external usb drive if I reboot the machine with a "normal" (non-blank)
> disc in it.
> Spent a good couple of hours googling all the above - the few times
> the machine sees the external drive, it says it's not writable.
> Is there any way to "force" the mac to mount this drive as writable?
> Thanks