Certain older CDs not playing in the superdrive

I am currently in the process of ripping my voluminous music CD collection to Itunes- and I occasionally have problems with some CDs (no this is not the newer Sony copy protection issue). I have 2 macs, a G4 blue and white and a newer Powerbook. The issue is that with the problem Cds the superdrive will not even accept the CD at all, or it will get to a certain song while I am importing into ITunes and it will freeze up and I have to do a force quit. The cds in question will play just fime in a ''regular'' cd player. The powerbook superdrive seems to be more sensitive to the problem as some cds that will not play/rip there will do OK in the desktop, but a few will not function in either. Since both computers are older- I know that I could upgrade to a better more recent drive- do you think this would solve the problem?

here is my drive info for the laptop:

ATA-3 Bus:

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-816:

Manufacturer: MATSHITA
Model: MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-816
Revision: DXJ3
Serial Number:
Drive Type: CD-RW/DVD-RW
Disc Burning: Apple Supported/Shipped
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal


Thanks,

Matt