Is it purely a matter of age? Its an old 486 I have in my room back home, its from about 96/96, running Windows 95. Is it just purely the age of the CDROM? I’ve tried installing a cd drive of a similar age and it doesn’t read them either. Would a more modern CD ROM read them? I’m only interested because the PC lets me play VCD’s and music CDs when I get home 
Have you tried different brands of CDs? I didn’t think brands make a difference, but then I found my Mom’s PC couldn’t read Imations, but had no trouble with Memorex. All burned with the same writer and software.
Most likely. Did you burn the data onto a CD-R or a CD-RW? CD-RWs don’t reflect as much light as CD-Rs or normal CDs, and older CD-ROM drives aren’t going to have sensitive enough optics to pick up the reflected laser.
Yeah, different brands, all CD-R’s. So I might pick up a new CD drive for £20 if I can. Like I said, its a kinda media centre for me when I get home so its worth it