Sorry for the long post, but this is a bit difficult to describe. A slightly worrying problem has cropped up - not an MC problem, but hopefully someone here can advise. I can rip store-bought CDs no problem, maxing out at around 8-9x. The problem occurs when I try to rip some of the audio CDs Ive made from recording my LPs. (at most 8 month old). These CDs play fine as far as I can tell on my hifi CD player, but when ripping in MC ripping starts out fine at but then slows down towards the end of the CD to 0.5x (ish) and the results are static filled. I have to cancel. This is MC default (large buffer?) ripping to MP3. Once in this state, the other apps on my PC wont play the CD also. I downloaded EAC which appears to rip OK, but creates blank WAVs with the right filesize, and I cant figure out how to integrate the LAME .exe with it - its a bit complicated and I havent explored this program properly yet.
The media is generic CD-Rs (from PC World for UK viewers), not quality brand-names. Each CD has a label printed and stuck on, printed from my inkjet. I know, I know, I should store important material on proper CDs.
The impression I get is that the heat generated in the CD as it spins is eventually causing the CR writer to fail. Its a generic player that came with the PC. Only other other hardware change was a new HD back in Feb. I havent tried ripping with the PC 'cold' yet, cos its been on all day.
Anybody got any ideas, other than to use quality media in the future? Im not completely panicking yet as I can still play from hifi and re-record.