7.10 sony vaio VGN-S360 install hell. (buffer I/O error on device sr0).

I'm receiving the following errors during ubuntu 7.10 install (and similar errors installing 7.04 and opensuse 10.3).

sr 1:0:0:0 [sr0] Sense Key : Medium Error [current]
sr 1:0:0:0 [sr0] Add Sense: Unrecovered read error
end_request: I/O error, dev sr0 sector 65332
Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 16333

The sector and block numbers effectively start at random numbers. The error repeats over and over
again with incrementing sector and block numbers.

I've burnt multiple cd's at 4x speed and the md5sum of the cd's match the source iso (and the given
md5sum on ubuntu.com).

I've tried various boot options. noapic nolapic, acpi=oldboot, pci=noacp, ide=nodma, irqpoll was the last set of them.

Similar error messages occur with ubuntu 7.04 and opensuse 10.3 livecd's.

The DVD/CDRW model is a Matshita UJDA765a.

Suse 10.0 is currently installed on the laptop and uses the dvd/cdrw drive perfectly.

Any ideas anybody ?