CD/RW trouble HP 7200+ Aopen

Ok, so i had an Aopen CDRW4048 and everytime i inserted a CD Or a CDR or CDRW to play, the green light would keep blinking, and the disc wouldnt load. So i pulled out an old HP 7200+ that i had, and it seemed as if it were going to work. It reads discs, except for CD-r's and RW's. In Windows Media player, when i try to burn a disc, it says there are no CDRW drives present. But when i try to burn in Nero, it gives me a "calibration area full" message. I looked this up and apparently i have to update my firmware, however whenever i try to it says "unable to detect CD-Writer plus." I did some research and apparently it has something to do with a dll file called cdr4dll.dll. I downloaded it and followed advice saying to put it in my System folder. I tried running the firmware update again and it still did the same thing. Can anybody help me with either the Aopen or the HP Drive? I WANT TO BURN CD's AGAIN!

THanks in advance