Exclamation marks prevent CD burning. Why is this happening?

Question

Hello:
Here's the problem...
When I bring up a Smart Playlist to burn to CD (R or R+W), the following happens:
1. If I uncheck a few songs, the exclamation mark shows up and won't go away.
2. When I insert the blank CD, most of the songs get hit with the exclamation mark. When I click for more info, it tells me that the song is not recognized. It also tells me to play the song, but iTunes won't let me play it.
3. When I restart iTunes, all the exclamation marks are gone, but as soon as I insert a blank CD, the above happens all over again.
4. The thing is, 99% of my music on iTunes has been downloaded from my CD collection, so there should be no issues with security.
What gives?
My iPod, which is still under warranty, and is working fine and will download from iTunes...even tracks that are saddld with the exclamation mark.
My computer is a PC (see below). All the drivers are up-to-date, as is iTunes.
Here are my CD diagnostics:
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
FUJITSU LifeBook P7010
iTunes 6.0.5.20
CD Driver 2.0.4.3
CD Driver DLL 2.0.3.2
LowerFilters: PxHelp20 (2.0.0.0), drvmcdb (1.0.0.1), Pfc (2.5.0.204), sscdbhk5 (1.0.0.1),
UpperFilters: GEARAspiWDM (2.0.4.3),
Video Driver: Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller\Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller
Found aspi32 running.
IDE\DiskFUJITSUMHV2080AT______________________00000096, Bus Type ATA, Bus Address [0,0]
USBSTOR\DiskMaxtor_OneTouch_II____023g, Bus Type USB
IDE\CdRomMATSHITADVD-RAM_UJ-822S________________1.01___, Bus Type ATA, Bus Address [0,0]
If you have multiple drives on the same IDE or SCSI bus, these drives may interfere with each other.
Some computers need an update to the ATA or IDE bus driver, or Intel chipset. If iTunes has problems recognizing CDs or hanging or crashing while importing or burning CDs, check the support site for the manufacturer of your computer or motherboard.
Current user is administrator.
F: MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-822S, Rev 1.01
Media in drive is blank.
Get drive speed succeeded.
The drive CDR speeds are: 4 8 12 16 24.
The drive CDRW speeds are: 4.
The drive DVDR speeds are: 4.
The drive DVDRW speeds are: 4.
The last failed audio CD burn had error code -128(0xffffff80). It happened on drive F: MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-822S on CDR media at speed 0X.

Answer 1

Matthew,
The problem is that when I try play the song/tune/file that has the exclamation mark, iTunes skips right over it, sometimes adding exclamation marks to a whole bunch of songs.
The marked songs go away if I close and reopen iTunes. They also copy to my iPod, but if I try to play the files, the marks retuen.
It's weird that this happens to random files/artists. And all have been downloaded from my original music CDs.
(FYI: it doesn't seem to happen with podcasts.)