@Gamerscircle: if ya mail ppl via the board make sure they can mail you back. You have board mailing disabled. But to answer your question in the mail. If you're having problems with a disc, "little nemo" create a topic in the proper section. If its a dvd post in the "anydvd forum" if its a blu-ray disc or hd-dvd then post in the "anydvd hd" section. Provide the anydvd logfile for the problematic disc. There's a sticky in each section on how to create one and attach to the post.
Next question: Try checking firmwarehq.com for your drive if there's an update, but since its a laptop chances are high its a matshita drive and there aint an update.
Next issue: Your drive may PLAY a disc, but that's not the same as RIPPING (READING) a disc. When playing back a disc certain "technologies" come into play such as "error correction" by standalones & drives. However when READING a disc, a bit-for-bit identical copy must be made. Wich means that if the drive encounters a problem (this can be a dirty fingerprint, scratch, oily disk surface, ...) that it can't overcome the data-flow to the drive simply stops. No data = iso / rip abort. It's just the way it is.
Create that topic in the proper section and attach the logfile for that little nemo disc. There's data in that logfile us more experience users and / or slysoft people may see that will tell us if it's your drive to blame or the disc is simply defective.
As far as an external drive is concerned
http://www.lg.com/uk/dvd-blu-ray-drives/all-dvd-blu-ray-drives
tick the boxes for "external" and "blu-ray support" and you'll see the most recent models. Then pick your favorite (among the 2), if you don't need blu-ray support, untick that box. Reason is pretty simple, if you get read errors on a blu-ray disc its a defective disc in most cases. BD's don't contain protections that can result in true or fake read errors.