Can you burn a backup copy of Mac OS X

I'm trying to figure out why this computer has so many random problems. It started out with verification errors burning DVD's, but it won't update from 10.3.3 to 10.3.9. The idea was that by updating, perhaps it may fix the DVD verification problem. However, I can't update the OS to find out if this is the problem. Perhaps it's time to split this off into a new post?

Have you installed the firmware updates for the b+w G3?

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58374

Maybe it's related??