Why might a laptop suddenly stop recognizing blank bluray discs?

Question

Said laptop had/has an external BluRay drive that I back some folders up to once a month to create a historical archive of sorts of files that change month to month. This setup has been working for 3 years. It has never stopped being able to read discs, only write. So far, I have:

Steps I've taken:

1. Tried updating drivers. Windows is satisfied with the driver, says device is working properly and the manufacturer of both drives provide no drivers, they just rely on Windows' built-in drivers.
2. Determined that firmware is up to date on both drives.
3. Uninstalled device from device manager and let Windows re-install it. No dice.
4. Replaced the BluRay discs assuming sunlight had spoiled them.
5. Replaced the BluRay drive assuming the laser diode could be dying.
6. Confirmed unfortunately that all drives and all discs work fine on another PC after spending lots of money.

Observations:

1. Windows is trying to use a generic DVD-Rom driver from 2006 for the drive.
2. Windows sees a "0 MB" BD-RE in the drive when I insert a disc.
3. The behavior doesn't change no matter what disc I use.
4. The laptop can read already burned BluRays, but refuses to "see" blank ones as a file target.
5. Laptop used to be a Windows 7 machine, upgraded to Windows 10 two years ago. Drive has been working on Windows 10 until now.

Important notes:

1. The replacement drive supports BDXL and as such I bought BDXL (100 GB) discs for the added capacity.
2. Original drive and discs (50 GB) were very bottom-o'the-barrel (No-Name Chinese Drive/Quantum Optical)
3. Replacement Drive is Verbatim Enclosure/Pioneer Drive and Verbatim Discs.
4. Windows "sees" the drive and can read already burned discs in every drive. Just can't write.
5. After discovering the first drive was probably fine, I scrapped the enclosure and installed it in an HP Elitedesk I have decked out for data-recovery stuff. It still exists but the enclosure is gone.

Any help is great but I'd like to know a bit more than just how to fix it, I'd like to know what may have caused this to happen? Nice to have only though, any fix is an answer.