This isn’t specifically an OpenSUSE or even a Linux issue, so I hope it’s OK to ask here.
I have a Thinkpad R61i running OpenSUSE 11.1 (64-bit); dual-boot with VISTA, tho I very very rarely use VISTA for anything. It has a combination DVDRW/CDRW drive (a GSA-T20N, if that’s relevant).
At the weekend, I set to rip a few CDs to MP3. First one went fine with C3B, but the second CD wasn’t recognised by the drive. I tried another CD, which also worked fine, then another which wasn’t recognised. I presumed hat one of those copy-protection mechanisms was at work.
At that point, I gave up on the ripping for now, and left the CD in the drive. I powered the computer on-and-off several times over the next few days, and the disc whirred away for a while with no result.
Today I wanted to resume ripping, so I took that disk out and tried another one. Also not recognised … and the same with several others, including those ripped only a few days ago. It now seems that the drive won’t recognise any audio CD, though it does recognise DVDs. So far, I also haven’t found a data CD that it will recognise. 
I have tried Vista, but get the same results that way.
So it seems to me that the copy-protected CD has somehow damaged the CD-reading functions of the drive whilst leaving the DVD functions intact. Does this sound plausible?
It seems puzzling to me that the apparent death of the CD-reading function has not also killed the DVD-reading.