Sony Mavica MVC-CD500 C13 Error

I hate to say this, but I think my beloved Mavica might be on the way out... :(

5 times over the weekend, on a succession of 3rd party CD-RW disks, I took a couple of snaps and then the "write" LED on the side of the CD drive just stayed static red for about 5 minutes (leaving the lens exposed) while it tried to recover the data...(sometimes losing a few photos in the process)...

I've dug out my two aged official Sony CD-RWs, dusted them off and formatted them, but haven't really had a chance to try them out in anger yet, I'm hoping (against much hope), that it's the batch of unofficial disks that are at fault (but for 3 disks to fail at the same time does seem a tad unlikely)...

Hey ho though, that camera has been quite literally half way around the world with me in the last year, so I wouldn't be too suprised if I've just worn it out, but I'll let you know how I get on...I might just need to buy some more official Sony disks, but the guy in Jessops (very friendly chap) said that Sony have stopped making them, I have found them online to buy, and it seems he is right, but they are £25 a pop (which isn't funny)...oh, I also asked the guy how much a repair for the camera would be (if it does turn out to be broken) and he told me £175...so I don't think that would really be worth it...(I'll just use this as an excuse to go for an upgrade to a nice Canon EOS or perhaps a Nikon D50)... ;)

Update - it seems to be working okay with the old disks, so, if you are having a similar problem, buy some new, branded Sony Media, format it and have another go (might save you the price of a new camera)...

Update update - Even one of the Sony disks screwed up today, got 31 pics out of 66 at full res (so a lot better than the third party ones), but still, Houston, we have a problem... :(