Yeah I started getting those left right and centre (in Nero, Alcohol, you name it) a few months ago, with an old Sony 16X CD Burner I had, tried it all, in the end replaced the drive and haven't had that error since, so that would be my response, though obviously you want to explore those other avenues before you buy a new drive
Yeah but with the prices for solid drives nowadays its not that bad anymore .... my ASUS 522452A went through ~7500 CDs without a single PCE .... gonna see if my current Litey can live up to that bar