Vista - Cd drive & recovery disc

Sorry, I can't find my old post of a few days ago. Laptop 3 1/2 months old,
Vista premium. Its been having trouble ripping or playing cd's, only does
part of them then stalls. It will play DVD movies, AND this morning I tried
to rip one of my own cd's, did it fine, all 13 songs in normal quick time.

The cd's I"m trying to rip are from the public library and have the security
strips on them so you can't steal them. I"m wondering if that has anything to
do with it. But when I first got the lap I did the library ones and it worked
fine, AND it does play the DVD with the same strips.

Why is this damn thing ripping some, not others. I do not want to use the
Recovery Discs like the tech support says, then I have to reset everything.
If its a hardware problem with the cd unit, shouldn't it give me trouble with
DVD and cd? Something is strange here and I"m not a techy guy.

Over the hoidays I'll see if the other two laps in he family have problems
with cd's I"ve had trouble.

Any and all brainstorming is welcome on this, Thanks and have a great
Christmas.