Cd rom drive read problem

Hello there. I have this problem where my cd rom sometimes will not read properly. The same cd can be put in and not read properly (such as the drive continuing to seek back and forth but not actually read), or it can read normally. I'm getting a cd rom drive lens cleaning kit to hopefully fix the problem. Does this sound like simply a problem with some dirt being where it shouldn't? Thanks for any help. If it helps, it's an LG 52x cd rom drive.

Is it a CD-R disk and how is the bottom of the disk?

In this case it was just an AOL 9.0 disc. It wouldn't load properly when I first put it in. When I put it in the 2nd time, it did. This cd-rom has been flaky like that also with a Windows XP disc. That Windows XP disc worked fine when I put it into my other optical drive.

I would go for the cleaning kit first, but if it's still flaky you may need to replace it.