I have the A05 & it works like a dream with Nero, Recordnowmax and Primo Prassi (the latter been my favorite).
I write mainly on the fly in conjunction with a pioneer 117 but, have written from image file as well. I have used various types of media but have settled with Datasafe 2x (it's cheap and it works!).
My point is - the A05 is brilliant, You have written discs successfully, then you have probs with one game & u want to swap ur machine for an older model!
Maybe just maybe, you should not write any more discs til ur chip arrives!