The media I used was some Phillips CD-Rs that were on sale about 2-3 months ago that we are using in the office. The TDK that I tried didn't bring up that Smart Burn message and also burned at 52X no problem (Phillips would only burn at 40X even though both are 52X CD-R media). I didn't do any scans.
I have another question. I just installed a Sony CRX230AD burner for someone in their office computer and installed Nero Express 6.3.1.4 (Sony edition) as the burning software (came with burner so it's OEM). It's bringing up a message that says it's incompatible with this version of Windows. Does that mean he has XP SP2 installed and needs to upgrade to a new version of Nero? Is the upgrade free from 6.3.1.4 to an SP2-supported version on the Ahead software website?