Possible DVD/CD HArdware problem..

It all started when I got the game FEAR. The game looked and ran great, but would lock up after about 10-20 minutes of play every single time I ran it. I updated all of my drivers and continued to have the problem. I assumed that the game just needed patching because there were a lot of other people out there with problems.
However, I ran an old game on my cpu which was way under my current system specs and experienced the same problem.
I tried again, with a different game of about the same cpu requirements...this one ran great... no problems.
One thing that I noticed was ....the first two games required the cd to run a lot during gameplay. The last one....everything was loaded on the hard-drive...so the cd rarely had to run.
I'm wondering if that could be my problem....something wrong with my DVD/CDrom Drive.

System Specs:

Shuttle G5 WCG 8300G
Pent 4 - 3.4 GHZ
1 GB Ram
Nvidia GF 6600
SB Audigy 2 ZS

Probably a lot more info needed...just let me know, and I'll post it.
Appreciate any help....