Ditch the rage pro and go for a Geforce 2, 3, or 4 whenever you can. Trust me.

If you can't, make sure you have the latest vid and sound drivers for your hardware,
the latest directX installed... and that you don't have any "incompatible" hardware or software.
(There's a list on the homepage, along with some other common problems/fixes.)

As for your friend and the "Read Error", depending on which drive is indicated,
sounds like he's either in need of a hard drive, a cdrom drive, or the CD itself.
There are some tests he needs to do before deciding this, though.
I agree it could be the cdrom... but it could also be hardware.
New means very little, with regard to hardware. I'm on my third "new"
40Gig harddrive in 6 months... read/write errors. Thanks, Western Digital.
(I know... shoulda known better)
Later!