HP a350n has a 300n DVD drive that won't recognize blank DVDs - I fixed it!!

My 300n DVD drive burns CDs great, but won't recognize blank DVDs.

There's a HP softpaq for this at:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&objectID=PSD_DK040805_CW01

My HP a350n has this drive and I love it for burning CDs. I was disappointed to have to go through this extensive search for it. Notice that the link above IS a firmware update, but not specifically for my computer.

The firmware upgrade listed at my pc's page on the HP website has a .exe file that won't run, because I "don't have the original HP software installed."

Notice everything that went wrong here:

1. The website looked like it was going to help, and it didn't.
2. I DO have the original HP software installed, and am not frickin' recovering to the D: partition backup of many moons ago.
3. I DON'T have original install discs because they weren't provided, and the HP make-install program failed, and the tech support guys in India were absolutely useless.
4. I shouldn't HAVE to do anything with the HP software. What about those poor bastards who moved the drive to another machine, or did a clean XP install to get rid of the HP shovelware?
5. The HP Update software doesn't detect that I need this update.
6. HP has not provided the new update to Microsoft to Windows Update, which would solve the entire problem.
7. TONS of PC owners have run into this problem.

If it works for your PC, I solved the problem that is all over the net, so YAY ME!!!!

If not, well, it was broken anyway.