althougth most dvd drives have a countersink in the disc draw for 8cm discs, not many of them actually work with 8cm discs.
my lg drive is the same , as was plextor with mini cd's. and is a pioneer cd player in the car
you need to find out from optorite if that drive was meant to be used with the 8cm discs before you trouble yourself with why they wont work for you
it may even be a case of getting an adadpter/caddy for the drive to recognise the disc
just looked for firmware for your drive, and ther'ss several updates . you mention youve tried 3 differant ones, but ahve you tried 2.50 , which si the latest of all of the uppdates ?
2.03, 2.04, 2.06, 2.07, 2.09, 2.11, 2.14, 2.15 , 2.16, 2.23, 2.25, 2.30, 2.50 (for Windows 2000 and Windows XP)
here's a link to v2.50 for you HERE