Speaking of "books" there's something to consider.
Modern CD-ROM drives may or may not support legacy standards like Green Book (or White Book) forever.
It's no big deal for our DOS/Windows machines likely, but modern drive may not make up for a good replacement for a Philips CDi console. 😉
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Book_(CD_standard)

Another thing is the lack of analog/digital audio output on modern drives.
Games running on older OSes may issue playback commands to a CD-ROM drive,
so it would play music track on its own.

PS: Back in the day, my father's Mitsumi Lu-005 single-speed drive was the most compatible thing I knew.
It could read any CD-ROM I threw at it, including those multi-session/mixed-mode disks that the 2x drive of
my PAS16 and my father's CD player had trouble with..

MAZter wrote on 2020-02-22, 16:09:

Reading ability depends more from the CD-R disc itself than from the drive.

Some old CD-Rom's read only Memorex and Fujifilm CD-R disks, but refuse Verbatim, TDK and other brands.

Exactly, I don’t remember any surefire way to predict what cdr is readable and when.

One company insisted on providing updates on cdr
My old 4x read them fine but the new 12x I had wouldn’t, occasionally roles were reversed

Back in the day cdrs could be a pain

FYI most older CD drives have a pot inside that adjusts the laser power. You can tweak this to improve compatibility with CD-R and CD-RWs. But sometimes you will find the setting needed for CD-RW makes CD-ROMs no longer work...

rmay635703 wrote on 2020-02-23, 02:25:

Exactly, I don’t remember any surefire way to predict what cdr is readable and when. […]
Show full quote

MAZter wrote on 2020-02-22, 16:09:

Reading ability depends more from the CD-R disc itself than from the drive.

Some old CD-Rom's read only Memorex and Fujifilm CD-R disks, but refuse Verbatim, TDK and other brands.

Exactly, I don’t remember any surefire way to predict what cdr is readable and when.

One company insisted on providing updates on cdr
My old 4x read them fine but the new 12x I had wouldn’t, occasionally roles were reversed

Back in the day cdrs could be a pain

Oh yes, indeed. Your comment made me shudder, it brought distant memories of "write simulation" and "JustLink" (buffer-underrun protection) back to life.
Another thing that I remembered.. Macintosh CD-ROM drives were pure evil. Especially hated the internal drive of ma iBook G3.
It refused to read CD-Rs, no matter what. Originals (pressed CD-ROMs) ran like a charm though. Makes me wonder if this behaviour was on purpose.

8x was the slowest my CD writers would handle, by the way. If it had been possible, I would have chosen 4x speed manually.
Anyway, my CD-Rs from ~2005 are still readable. Maybe because of storage. I kept them them in jewel cases in dark, sealed boxes filled with news paper.
Same goes for my father's 5.25" disquettes from ~1986. They are still fine. Just (~3 years ago) went to toilet with Leisure Suite Larry for testing purposes. 😉

PS: Our "bookware" (companion diskettes/CDs in books) are still fine, also.
Some of these books are from 1990 and before.

Jo22 wrote on 2020-02-23, 08:19:

Oh yes, indeed. Your comment made me shudder, it brought distant memories of "write simulation" and "JustLink" (buffer-underrun protection) back to life.
Another thing that I remembered.. Macintosh CD-ROM drives were pure evil. Especially hated the internal drive of ma iBook G3.
It refused to read CD-Rs, no matter what. Originals (pressed CD-ROMs) ran like a charm though. Makes me wonder if this behaviour was on purpose.

Oh yeah, I remember having issues getting my iBook G3 Clamshells to read CD-R discs. Most of the time, it would think it was a blank disc (which is odd because the drive is a CD-ROM, not a CD-R burner), and once in a while it would work, but give up after a while. Made it impossible for me to reinstall the OS after upgrading the hard drive since original Mac OS 9 install CDs are very hard to find these days. Oddly enough, my Powerbook G3 Wallstreet (which is a year older than the Clamshells) could read burnt CD-Rs perfectly fine. I'd be willing to bet Apple used cheap CD drives in their early iBooks just like Compaq did with most of their computers back then.

My 486 has a quad speed Creative drive from 1994 that’ll read most CD-Rs as long as they’re in immaculate condition. CD-RW is a big no-no.

It really makes you appreciate the newer drives that much more eh? My LG BDXL burner will happily read even the most scratched up DL DVD-RWs that I made with my first DVD burner back in 2006! In fact, it even revs up the spindle motor and reads them at high speed. Tech these days...:p

Yeah, no doubt. I've got a little USB-powered Pioneer BDXL drive that is just an absolute champ.

This thread started 10 years ago, but FWIW, the combination of reader, writer, media, and (to a lesser extent) speed all contribute. There's no formula for this. I have used CD-Rs in many of my old 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x drives with no trouble, while the same disc in another random drive won't work at all. CD-RWs are pretty much a no-go unless the drive is a burner -- but my 6x HP CD-Writer (manufactured by Philips I think) does not like my 4x-10x RWs. It also struggled with a Verbatim disc burned on a good, reliable drives (either the Pioneer or one of my Plextors) but it happily read a Sony CD-R from a cakebox I bought around the same time. (Also about 10 years ago.) It's a crap-shoot. Try a different brand of disc at a lower speed and see what happens.