I know this is not the anwser you’re waiting for, sorry for that… but considering the very low price of newer DVDRW drives, upgrading would definitly be an option…
As Jbv mentions, burned @2X most of recent medias would give very unsatisfying results, and good 4X medias are very hard to find except in hypermarkets, where the price is far too high for the media you buy (at least here in Europe).
So $46 to $55 for a new drive (Pioneer 109, NEC 3540A, Benq 1620 may be recommended - Benq 1640 being more expensive at this time) wouldn’t really hurt considering you could, then, buy on the net excellent 8X media at a very good price, as 8X media prices dropped since the introduction of 16X medias.
Cheers 