LG GH24LS50 24X Super Multi SATA DVD Writer Issues

I'm not sure what to do, I've had this drive (LG GH24LS50 24X Super Multi SATA DVD Writer) for several days now, but it's acting funny.

It's working, but it often seems to struggle first.

I went to install Left 4 Dead for example and at the start of the install it was making noise like a drive struggling to read a disc. It was like this for a minute or two and the install said it was gonna take 40mins. to an hour to install from disc! Then the drive finally reved up to full speed and sounded normal and installed as you'd expect (the noise stopped).

Later I put in a blank DVD-R disc to burn some data files to. It wouldn't read the disc, the light just kept flashing on the front, but it wouldn't recognize it. Then I took it out and put it in my other drive to verify the disc wasn't bad and it worked. So I put it back in this drive and it read it just fine.

I've tried regular CD's and DVD's as well as blank ones.

It seems to make a noise like it's struggling to read fairly often, but it eventually it will read the disc.

Is there anything else I can do to test it more definitely to see if it has some sort of defect?

Any suggestions as to what I should do with it?

If I send it back they might say it's working, or if I don't send it back it might die just after my return window closes.