I have researched this issue and can not find an answer. OK I installed an app to convert music files, what it ultimately did was make my superdrive useless any disc I put in spits out after a few seconds. I have looked for anyway to reinstall the firmware for the drive but have gotten here as a resort.
\mac mini Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 5 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MM41.0042.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.65f2
Serial Number (system): C07F88U0DD6H
Hardware UUID: C6B08802-112D-56D3-ACC7-0AC281E773DA
HL-DT-ST DVDRW GA32N:

Firmware Revision: KC12
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 1024 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose File > Refresh Information

another problem I am having is I can not get the cap s to work.. tried changing keyboards.. no avail...

And what was the software you installed?

Regardless, try running the Combo Updater for your version of OS X.

don't overlook the possibility that your superdrive has developed a fault at a time coinciding with another change you made. Everything that's broken went from good to bad at some moment in time, and occasionally that instant will coincide, quite by chance, with a plausible alternate explanation.

test your drive whilst booted off another OS, or boot your computer into target mode and try to use its drive from another computer, to make sure they hardware's ok and you're not chasing ghosts.

Find out the SuperDrive is not a Matsushita but instead it is one with two digits, a hyphen, two digits, which you can find out in the System Profiler. If it is, then Google the exact model number and I believe you will find others having similar issues to the one you describe.