I used to use FreeRip and just recently changed over to EAC. From what I've read about it, it should be the most robust ripping option- able to get tracks off of damaged CDs and such.

As you described, though, even WinMediaPlayer can't play the tracks on the CD, so something is going afoul in PC land.

Could you copy an ISO image to your hard drive and then 'rip'/compress from the hard drive?
EAC should try to work out getting all the info off the CD... but as you said it seems to get stumped along the way.
Hmm... dunno...