Is it playing in Windows Media Player ? Sounds to me as if it's playing the CD in Digital mode i.e. the PC is extracting the data and processing it, instead of just playing it in CD audio mode. Can you do the following?
- run Windows Media Player with no CD in (so it starts straight in to Library mode), then insert an audio CD;
- stop the playback, and open Tools -> Options;
- on the Devices tab, select your CD/DVD device and hit the "Properties" button
- In the window that pops up, you should see options for Playback (Digital or Analog): select Analog if possible, then OK, OK, and restart WMP.
In the case of my new laptop (a few months old), Analog is greyed out, so it can only play Audio CDs in Digital mode. It doesn't spin too fast, though. Exactly how it behaves depends on the hardware you have. I remember an older drive going nuts when set to Digital playback in XP.