Bought a new pack of Memorex just out of curiosity. Definitely not the media - not a single one from this pack has even been recognized by the computer. Thinks the drive is empty. I would accept that my computer can't burn them if I hadn't been successful previously. I can't fathom WHY it says "medium not present" on both imgburn and the computer itself. Somehow I don't think Verbatim would help with this situation, however I'd gladly upgrade to those once I figure out what the heck is wrong.

As useless as I'm sure this will be, I'm gonna contact DELL. Thanks for trying guys.