I've had similiar problems ever since MC 9 (only on my work computer). Maybe 8. I can't remember anymore. An earelier build of MJ certianly worked. After a lot of help from the MC people and the Interact forum, I eventually had to give up (okay, it CAN rip now, but everything comes out really jittery and filled with echo). I use the free AudiCrusher to rip now, and MC to play and keep track of my music files.
Actually, the other weird thing was that at the same time that MC stopped being able to rip CDs, it also stopped being able to PLAY them . . . it can no longer play in digital mode, and in analog it will only play the CD as on giant "live" steaming track.
But since every other player and ripper out there seems to work on my PC, I use them for CDs (AudioCrusher is nice and small and fast, and while it's options are limited, it's all I need to get the CDs turned into MP3s and auto-tagged before playing them in MC 10). .. there's still nothing better out there than MC for playing, tagging, and organizing Mp3s -- especially with those crazy-awesome SpartaKing plug-ins and the great new MC 10 interface. Strange that others are having similiar problems with ripping, though.
I'm on a Dell running Windows Pro on a network . . . anyone else here having the problem on a similiar setup?