I am running SUSE 8.2
I have the system recognizing my Burner
(hdc=ide-scsi, I edited fstab, etc)
The K3B software sees my burner but when I click write,
it asks me to insert a blank CD. Well I already have one in there.
When i click on the Drive it says it it trying to retrieve info from the drive.
I finally just have to shut it down.
Is there some sort of "Mounting" that needs to happen?

no, if you burn cd's in linux, you (as far as I know) never have to mount the disc when starting if you do, I think the burner won't do a thing for it....

mm could there be something in your app's setup/config that needs to be changed? mine does some search when I start it (xcdroast) and it takes a while...though it might be because my PC isn't the newest there is hehe

The burner has trouble recognizing a new CD.
I got it to recognize a previously burned CDR, but when I tried to add a file it still messed up.
Another time, it recognized only 5 files on a CDR that had 20 directories and hundres of files on it.
I traded out CDR drives and the same problem persists.
Has anyone run into this?????

hmm have you tried another program to burn your cds? I don't know if it helps a bit but try installing Xcdroast for example, it's not that big. (needs cdrtools, can be located from the same site as xcdroast) -> check out http://www.xcdroast.org and http://www.xcdroast.org/#download and try it if you wish... you must run it as root the first time to save the setup and let normal users use it, but in the same time you'll surely see whether it detects the drive(s) correctly and by trying it you see if it detects your cds it's a try at least.. if it produces the same problem, then we know it's not the app, but something else..