What are you using to test this....it is my undestanding that a CD will read at what it is supposed to....thats why some older programs said they required a 12X cd rom or better...but if the program read at 10x then you dont have a problem ?? or are you having problems with it reading the CD because it is too slow?? In which case...bring it back...the cost of a 32X cd rom isnt worth the cost of troubleshooting...specially if its new...also poke around in system under control panel...if I rember there was a cd setting that you can change the speed ...alittle