Have the supplier handle the problem then. Noone can expect you to mess around with a faulty CD/RW drive or to swap one component after the other of your own computer to suit the new drive's needs (even if the flaw should lay buried in your hardware :D ) , you are a user, right? Insist on that! :)

You say that you can format the discs, this indicates to me that there is no apparent conflict stopping the laser from going into "write" mode. Be absolutely sure that you're using CD-RW discs where necessary - you don't "format" a CD-R disc as the data is written in a continuous spiralling track, there is no concept of "tracks", "sectors", etc. as there is with a hard disk or CD-RW disc.

I bought CDRW disks when i bought the drive, but still wont' work. I've spoken with different local computer repair places, and they all tell me different things...