How to reduce CD-ROM load speed

I would like any suggestions of ways to reduce the amount of time between loading a CD and being able to read the contents. I have seen wide variations in the amount of time it takes, and hav seen no clear pattern to the cause. I know this has nothing to do the the read speed (36x, 48x) and I’m not sure even the seek time is a complete reflection of the variations.

A second issue is the best way to check the integrity of a CD – CD burning programs seem far from infallible in their integrity checks. I have found a freeware app that creates a checksum file of the items being burned, and then allows you to check that file against the CD, but I’m wondering about other options.

Thanks