Lite-on LTD-163 DVD-ROM read errors

The ancient drive on my desktop is experiencing read errors, it appears. I've recently tried booting from both a UBCD recovery disc and an Ubuntu disc (I've successfully booted my laptop from these discs, so they would seem to be OK). Either it won't boot at all and gives me various error messages pertaining to read errors (some of which I've written down and can supply if they are vital), or it boots remarkably slowly (compared to the laptop, which is less than half as fast) and then crashes almost immediately.

EAC also reports large numbers of errors when I rip cds (at least they seem like large numbers of errors, but I'm new to EAC, so my expectations are uninformed).

Basic system info: Dell Dimension 8100, XP Home w/SP3, 1.3 G P4 chip, 768 M memory. Some of you might recommend just replacing this dinosaur of a drive, which I would do, but my budget is stretched so thin right now, even the $40 or so a drive costs would be difficult to raise.

I need to reinstall Windows soon, however, and it seems to me I need the drive I install it from to be ship-shape for that installation to work, so if replacing the drive is necessary, that's what I'll have to do. If so, can anyone recommend a good quality DVD burner that can be had for a rock-bottom price?

All advice is greatly appreciated...