Help w/bad mp3 rips?

Argh. Help.

I just can't seem to get clean mp3s from CDs for use with my Windows iPod. I'm using an Windows XP box to rip from and encoding at 192 kbps, high quality, true stereo. I've tried several types of commercial ripping software (musicmatch, realplayer using the XING encoder) as well as audiograbber with the LAME encoder. I don't run other software while ripping, and have killed all the background tasks I can find. The best so far seems to be audiograbber, but I still get muted background noises and the occasional skip. Before audiograbber, I got lots of skips. What is up? Any computer-type audiophiles have any suggestions (other than buying an iMac)? Could I have a bad CD reader?

I'm really getting sick of ripping stuff over and over again.