I seem to be having a problem with my 716-AL DVD writer. Every time I try to write with Nero Ultra 7 I get an error and it stops writing. Ive tried 4 different types of media, so its not a media issue. The firmware is 1.2. The drive worked fine for a long time, but recently started giving me problems. Ive tried DVD Clone as well. I thought it may be a 80 wire ATA cable, but it has worked fine in the past and I dont have a 40 wire on hand anymore. The drive is set as master, and the other DVD (Lite-On) drive is set as slave. My install of WinXp is approximately 18 months old, but clean running (35ish processes) and virus free (tested by Avast!). Im about to the point where Im ready to pull it out and throw in a $30 SATA burner and call it a day, but I figured Id take a few more shots at it.

Have 2 plextor drives. a older 716 (IDE) and a 755 Sata. Both are still working fine. You might find that you need to (1) reseat the laser connector or (2) clean the laser lens.

If you do not get a fix here, I would try:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f43/?daysprune=30

I use to visit their Plextor site regularly. Have not been there for a while as plextor got out of the oem DVD sector.