Do they not rip on any other machine? That's a weird issue. I've never had it happen to me.

Ooh! I've had the same problem, but no solution. I'll be watching this space for answers...

If it's a "real" Compact Disc, i.e. with the approved Philips logo, it should meet the Red Book standard and those audio files should be extractable. I usually use CDex for ripping.

Have you tried CDeX? It is still a beta freeware program and has got me past a few "touchy" CDs.

Try ripping to a WAV first. Then convert the WAV to MP3. So far it has worked every time.

Good luck.

Have you tried Winamp? It has ripped everything I've tried with success unless the disc itself is scratched; then I get the problems you describe. I'm assuming that is a result of ripping faster than it plays back, causing it to lose the track more easily.

You could always try ripping in real-time to see if that helps.

An arcane method (relative to data ripping) would be to use sound recorder to record a .wav while playing the track back through the CD player (haven't tried this since Win2k). The quality will be reduced since it's not copying the actual data but gets the job done.

Good call SoMD, forgot to mention that. I always rip to .wav files and use an encoder to convert them to .mp3.

Have you tried a different CD drive? I had problems ripping off one of my drives.

Also, which CDs?

try playing the CD on a cd player, feeding that into your computers line in and recording what comes in as a .wav file. I have a program that will automatically record everything to .mp3 but I imagine you are not wanting to spend money. Most computers have a means of recording what comes in as a wave file, converting that may be more involved, but there are some free converters out there. Audacity comes to mind. Seems like a round about method, but it's just another idea to try.

Take the CD back and tell the store it is busted.

No idea if this would work, but...what if you tried copying the disc to a CD-R. Then see if the new disc plays properly and try ripping from the CD-R. Maybe that could do the trick???

I've had cases where CDs I bought not only wouldn't rip, but even just attempting to read them on an XP machine could cause the whole system to seize up. They weren't copy protected and I have autorun disabled.

One of them was a used disc that did have a small scratch right on the inner track, presumably on the initial disc sectors. It played fine in my car and in boomboxes, just not my computer. The other disc looked fine, but maybe had something I couldn't easily see. It also played fine elsewhere. FWIW, the scratched one was Art Brut's "Bang Bang Rock & Roll" and the one that looked fine was Pulp's "This Is Hardcore".

I generally believe in paying for all my music, but in both cases bittorrent solved my problems. I couldn't come up with any ethical reason not to go that route when I still have the physical media on my shelf but can't play it in my preferred audio software.

What you didn't mention is whether the disc would mount on your computer. If it will mount, then you could do a variant of what ArlVA suggested, and do a direct data copy of the files from the CD to your hard drive, and then import them into your music player from there (whether it be wav, aiff, or ripping to mp3 or aac or whatever). From your description, though, it sounds like the cd won't even mount. I have had that problem on a G5 iMac with a slot load drive where the cd wouldn't mount whatsoever and then I was able to get it to mount on an external firewire drawer-load drive. The first important thing is to see the cd mount on the computer.

Ripping to .wav first using Windows Media Player or MusicMatch Jukebox and then converting to .mp3 has worked for me.

It sounds like a copy protection scheme that was introduced a few years ago, then dropped, is back. Essentially, errors are introduced to the cd that audio cd players are tolerant of but computer cds, when they try to copy, are not.
It's pretty effective. The only way around it is, as has been mentioned, plug your cd into your computers audio in, and use something like Audacity to record.

Here's a link to a patent with fairly detailed info on the technology.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/EP1389778.html

http://hcalls.com

Can the CD be played on your computer at all without converting? If so you may be able to play the CD on your computer and record it with software.

Have you tried a Linux or Mac ripper?

I have this problem with CDs that are filled up all the way (eg all 700 MBs or close to it), but know of no solution!

Not all optical drives are created equal. Plextor drives work well for me - I'm sure there are other name-brand drives that work just as well. But the generic drive that came with my computer did not work so well - plenty of unreadable discs or ripped WAV files filled with errors.

The main problems I have these days are with DualDisc CDs; old Columbia House or BMG Music Club discs from the '80s or early '90s; copy-protected discs from abroad, manufactured earlier this decade; and the occasional disc that must be from a poor batch from the pressing plant - no other explanation fits.

I've had this problem with a few CD's. They play fine on the computer CD player or on any other CD device, but when you rip them in any format they sound peaky and distorted. I didn't notice any copyright devices but that might be the problem. I have a stand alone imported CD/CDR player that I used to copy the disc to the CDR then copy the CDR to the PC. Takes long but it works better than buying the whole CD again or downloading it.

I think the last sentence in your post is what you should try. If friends have copies of the same disc you own, try theirs. If they work fine, then your copy is bad. If the same problem occurs, then my fellow readers' suggestions (bad factory product and/or copy protection) become even more likely.

LarryM's diagnosis of your problem is correct, I think.

Computer drives don't have the same error correction circuits built into them that audio CD drives do. One of the copy protection schemes introduces deliberate errors that are corrected by audio CD drives -- computer drives barf on those errors. Philips will not allow the use of the CD logo on audio discs using copy protection schemes.

At a conference in the UK I attended, a speaker from the IFPI (the European equivalent of the RIAA) claimed that this copy protection system had engendered few complaints from users. A man from the BMW factory challenged his statement, noting that when the CD doesn't work, the consumer blames the car!

I have had two cd's that would only permit me to copy at low bit rate. It turned out they were copy protected. I returned both cd. The store was aware of the problem and exchanged for a cd without the copy protection. I have no intention of distributing the file, but if I can not copy to play on computer and ipod, the cd is of no use to me. You need to make the store/distributor aware that you will not accept items with this restriction.

I've had good success using an older computer. I have a 2005 iMac G5, a 2003 iMac G4, and a 2000 Powerbook G3. I've found that the powerbook is the most reliable (but slowest) ripper. The G5 will rip almost nothing. I have no explanation, but that's one of the reasons I keep the Powerbook around (that, and it's just a great little machine).

where do I go on the webpage to enter questions?

Linux.

I've even run into a few discs that KDE wouldn't recognize but Gnome would (both on the same openSuse install).