Older drives are more sensitive to disc quality. This is also an issue with some 1990s game consoles.
The Taiyo Yuden plant in Japan made high quality CDRs that are much more compatible with picky drives.
For the last several years it was operating, Taiyo Yuden was owned by JVC and the packaging was branded as "JVC Professional" or something like that. They also kept the name Taiyo Yuden as a footnote somewhere, since people still remembered that name.
If they came from that plant the packaging will say "Made in Japan". I saw some on eBay but prices and Country of Origin varies.
I think they shut down at the end of 2015 or so. They were the last Japanese plant making CDRs.
After that the Taiyo Yuden brand was sold to CMC Magnetics and the discs come from a CMC plant somewhere.
I ordered most of my Japanese TY discs from MediaSupply - that site still sells newly manufactured quality-oriented discs but no CDRs come from Japan anymore. They might still be good - I just don't know.
When I lived in California I sometimes found old CDRs at Goodwill. They were still in good condition and worked well, but it was a dry climate. Thrift stores are more fruitful in some places than others - I haven't seen nearly as much tech junk after moving to FL.
Discs like to be cool, dry, and dark.
Keep in mind the name on the packaging usually isn't who made the discs, that name is just a marketing facade.
If you find any old CDRs that are marked made in Japan, they're probably good (unless age has ruined them).