Sorry to jump in here late, but just to make you feel better, I have also seen this happen (a few times).
Time #1-- CD label was put on (very badly) by customer. Label was affixed lopsided, and after getting wrinkles in it, they decided to just affix 2 more (!!!) labels to the top of it.
Time #2-- Turned out that the drive was the culprit. A few CDs exploded before we believed that it was the drive. This occurred with various CDs.
Time #3-- Person decided that since the CDROM drive was capable of reading a CD while the tower was on its side, it would be okay to rotate the tower while the computer was booting from the CD!! Boom!! Mudskipper
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Groucho said it best- "A four year-old child could understand this!
Quick! Run out and find me a four year-old child: I can't make heads nor tails out of this!"