CD drive problems
Yes, I am having the same problem on my DVD RW drive, you may find the drive is failing. Something you can try that seems to work one time in three on my erratic drive is press eject, lift the disk and turn it a quarter turn and then close. Leave a few seconds as it seems slower to be recognize.
In my case I also use a free download program from Nero, go to the Nero site, and select Nero DiscSpeed ver 5.0.1.250 its 3.20 MB. The help file is a seperate download and mine came in German(no use to me), but the program is straight forward. Put a music disk in, and click the Start at upper RH. Mine seems to show an increase in speed from start to finish. I should have tried a data disk as speed was from X6 at start to X12 at finish. Maybe the data disk would read faster. I am assuming a slipping drive belt but probably the optics are fungussed.
None if these drives last long. Mine is 5 years and often 3 is a good life. If you are really keen you can strip it, and the worm drive that moves the reading head to the centre start position can be seen to be worn. You can wrap PTFE tape round it and its bearing area. Not worth the effort unless you are desperate in a remote area.