I can burn a disk with a different drive and it still fails when the Benq tries to boot off it under linux.

Better yet I can burn a disk with the Benq under windows that scans fine, boots fine in another DVD drive and the Benq still can't boot off it.

There's pretty clearly a problem between the Benq and a lot of 2.6 kernels running on various motherboards. Google "benq 1640 linux" or "plextor 740a dvd linux error" and see what you find. There are increasing numbers of problem reports coming out. Hopefully someone with some kernel hacking experience will notice...