Skipping sound when using CDROM
 

I installed an older Acer 50x CD drive, and I notice when I play audio CDs theres a little skipping sound constantly. Maybe I should clean the internal parts? What's the best way to solve this problem?

What version of Windows are you running. Try copying the music cd to a temporary location on your hard drive. If it copys relatively quickly, your drive is functioning absolutely fine. If it takes 30 minutes or so, the likelyhood is the IDE device is not working up to spec. If it takes forever to copy, try updating your motherboards IDE drivers.

If you get errors while copying, it could be IDE drivers, or a faulty drive.

If all data copies, relatively fast, check/update your sound card drivers.

If all the above fail, sing... :)

I have encounter skipping sounds on my Acer only after having the CD on pause for several minutes. I learned that if I was going to have it on pause for longer than a minute, I should stop the CD entirely to avoid the skipping sound.

I wouldn't clean any of the internal parts, that will just cause more problems then it's worth.

Try checking the properties of the drive and check to see if DMA is enabled. Also check the multimedia properties and try some of the different sound options.