Thanks to everyone who has provided advice. I've tested the drive speed with "Nero CD Speed", and the results I got were quite different from that of the findings posted. Mine produces speeds that fluctuated around 17x. So I would guess that my drive is defective. Though, if I force the drive...

I purchased Plextor's UltraPlex 40max SCSI CD-Rom for use in my computer headphone system, but have found the drive to be extremely noisy. I can hear it clearly from down the hall, and am afraid that there is something wrong with my drive. It is probably the loudest drive I have ever used (and...