Problems w/ NEC NR-7900A CD-RW (GTW OEM); DVD+/-RW Recommendation

I am having a problem with my NEC NR-7900A CD-RW (Gateway OEM, 1.5 years old
and out of warranty). When ripping or playing CD tracks on the outer edge
of music CDs, I get a lot of skipping, static and popping. The problem
persists using both Windows Media Player 9 and iTunes for Windows 4. I
uninstalled and re-installed the CD drive driver (currently 5.1.2535.0
digitally signed by Microsoft; I am running Windows XP Home SP-1) with no
improvement. These same music CDs work fine in my other CD players (car,
home, etc.). Over the weekend I swapped the CD-RW with a DVD-ROM from a
family member's computer; the DVD-ROM drive worked flawlessly.

All of this leads me to believe that it is a defective CD drive, but I have
never heard of this happening. Does anyone have any suggestions on possible
fixes? If it is indeed defective hardware, it hardly seems worth repairing
since new burners go for $50.

Assuming I do need to replace the drive, I would probably opt for a
multi-format DVD burner. Any recommendations on those? I was leaning
towards the Pioneer DVR-106D (OEM of the A06, $121 at newegg).

Thanks.
Michael