Paging Mr. Fabris: This sounds like something for the FAQ.

Interestingly, I finally found a CD in my collection (Monty Python's "The Final Ripoff") that fails with my Plextor burner and my Toshiva DVD. The Plextor craps out two tracks before the end and the Toshiba craps out on the last track. It's an older CD, which you can observe because the varnish is turning brown around the edges. Rip it now before it goes bad altogether.

I'll give the variable-speed thing a try to see if that works. I'm surprised there isn't a ripping program that knows how to slow down and retry.

Oh well...