Can Vso Inspector Not Scan A Blank Disk?

I've just inserted a blank DVD-RW into my USB drive. I've selected the correct drive in VSO Inspector but, instead of saying Ready, it just says Blank media inserted, and the Start button is greyed out.

 

I just wanted to run a surface scan on it. Why does it need data to run a surface scan?

 

I obviously don't understand what a surface scan is then. I thought that meant the physical surface of the disk. Nothing to do with data.

 

You're correct.
But, VSO Inspector and other similar programs cannot preform a surface scan of blank CDs & DVDs.

 

Got caught out on that as well. Most defects on this type of media are visible. Here it might have been a possible dusty lens viz the old favourite: "Windows Media Player encountered an error while burning." The burn failed at or around 1% with WMP but succeeded with another DVD from the same batch on cdburnerxp at 8X.
Anyone try the "Check For Firmware Update" and get a weird Google search results list?

 

I thought I might use VSO Inspector to find out why my Blu-Ray Writer will read disks but not burn them anymore. When trying to burn a disk, it just spins up, then slows down, then repeats until I remove the disk. Anyone know what the problem might be. Maybe the laser that burns disks has failed? Is there a separate laser that reads disks?