Sometimes I run into the problem of my burned CDs skipping and/or not playing at all.  These same CDs look fine with no visible signs of abuse, scratches, marring or any other surface issues.  These CDs will skip repeatedly.  They may not play some tracks at all.  The CD player may give error codes.  The CDs may just continue to spin without being read.  The CD player may simply shut down and do nothing.  These same burned CDs may play fine on another CD player or DVD player.  The CD player will usually play commercially bought CDs just fine, without any of the problems mentioned above.

Obviously, if you don't take good care of your CDs, burned or new, then the question of them playing is moot.  Too many times I've seen others toss their CDs on the back seat of their car or in a pile of CDs, without any CD cases, sleeves or any other protection.  Once the CD is scratched, the possiblility of skipping and/or playing issues becomes evident and may not be repairable.  People seem to think CDs are industructible and that couldn't be further from the truth.

Commerically recorded CDs have protective layers which aid in preventing scratches, but cannot withstand rough abuse of a CD.  When CDs were first introduced, they were proclaimed vastly superior to vinyl records because of their much superior durability and resistance to degradation of sound quality from repeated playing.  Unfortunately, CDs are not as superior as first thought.  The poorer quality due to ever reduced production costs may be partially to blame.  CD handling is also a huge culprit.

Burned CDs do not have the protective layers applied by commercial manufacturers on their finished product.  Therefore, burned CDs are at a significant disadvantage from the start.

I've tried cleaning the burned CDs with all types of cleaners from simple dishwashing liquid and water rinse to special CD disc cleaning kits.  The results are typically the same.  Skipping continues and/or the CDs cannot be read.

If you attempt to clean your CD discs, be careful as to how and what you use to do so.  For instance, paper towel should never be used.  It is far to rough.  Softer tissue such as a good quality toilet tissue is soft enough, but may leave little specs of tissue or lint on the CD.  Cleaning kits may come with a Chamois type cloth which will gently clean the surface of a CD.  I may just use my fingers and a tiny amount of dishwasher liquid.  I'll apply the dishwasher liquid, gently rubbing it onto the CD playing surface and then completely rinse the CD in luke warm running water and pat dry with a soft towel.  Your finger tips are pretty gentle, and all the nerve endings will help you 'feel' for any obvious or serious scratches and/or any type of dust or soil that may be stuck to the surface of the CD.

I also attempted to clean the CD player in question, using commercially available CD cleaning discs.  One such disc that I've owned for years is made by Maxell and includes a simple 2 brush wet/dry cleaner.  You can place a drop of cleaner (typically an alchohol based cleaner), onto the brushes and then play the cleaning CD.  As it spins, it wipes the CD laser lens, effectively removing any contaminants on the lens itself.  My CD cleaning disc also comes with a 'demagnetization' tone.  This tone burst lasts about 10 seconds and is claimed to remove magnetism within your component system and its wiring.  I honestly cannot tell you that I hear a difference before and after playing this demagnetizing tone.  Demagnetizing worked with cassette tape players, but that is because tape players utilize magentism to play and record tapes.  CDs use laser light, not magnetism.  Some CD cleaning discs have more brushes.  The brushes may have copper, which is claimed to remove static electricity.  Again, I cannot hear any difference after using such discs.  The bottom line:  The various CD cleaning discs mentioned did not fix the skipping and/or non-playable issues with my burned CDs.

Some problems associated with the skipping and/or unreadable burned CDs may be associated with CD labels commonly found at many computer and electronic retailers.  I ceased using such labels years ago.  The labels contain an adhesive which eventually seaps through the burned CD and causes misreading by the CD player.  I've seen new types of CD labelers which imprint onto the CD much like the printing on commercially bought CDs.  This type of label system may be ok.  I have not tried it myself.  If I wrtie onto a CD, I simply use a pencil or a very thin writing marker and I write as little as I need to onto the CD.

The quality of the CD blanks may be the cause.  Recently, I had burned CDs on computer store brand name blanks.  They played well until I tried to play them in a used car CD player.  This car is about 10 years old.  Disregard all the comments regarding older CD players being unable to play burned CDs.  That is really not true.  In fact, some of the older CD players were actually built much better than newer CD players.  So I switched to Sony blank CDs.  My experience is that the reputable companies such as Sony, TDK and so on will offer a better product.  This was also true with cassette tapes of the past.  Typically, the high quality brands allowed much better recordings compared to store brands or 'off' brands.  You do get what you pay for.

I reduced the recording speed.  I have Vista.  That in itself is a problem.  I'm not a fan of Vista, but I'm stuck with it.  I took several burned CDs which would not play on the older CD player in my used car, mentioned above, and I re-recorded those CDs onto Sony blank discs at the SLOW rate on my Vista laptop.  The resulting Sony discs play perfectly on the old car cd player.  To change your recording speed, you need to go into your media player options and tools and choose the 'slow' rate.  You will have a choice of fast (default), medium or slow. 

The slow rate of speed is not too bad.  It still only takes a few minutes to burn a CD at the slow speed.  I watched my Vista burn the CD and I estimate the 'slow' speed at about 6-8x's, which is typically suggested as the preferred speed for burning CDs, if you desire your burned CDs to be compatible with most commercial CD players.  Also, a byproduct of reduced recording speeds may be improved fidelity.

Please note:  Most older CD players, whether they are OEM car stereos, boomboxes or discrete components, will most likely be unable to read MP3 compressed CDs.  So do not confuse the inability to play MP3 recorded CDs with the inability to play standard recorded CDs.  They are not the same format.