Unfortunately, I can't really help you in solving your problem, but I hope I can help in explaining it. Apologies in advance if you know all this and I am being a bit patronising!
There are several issues (I think) with cutting CDs on a PC, which can be divided into two categories.
Firstly, there is an issue with CD formats, of which there are several. A lot of CD burning programs by default burn an 'audio CD' as a PC disk containing MP3 files (or some equivalent). Many CD players don't recognise this format as it is completely different to a music CD you would buy in a shop. although a PC will, of course, happily play it.
Secondly, CD players can be a bit flaky when it comes to playing audio CDs burned on a PC. My fairly expensive (but old) mini hi-fi system rarely plays an audio CD made from ripped music files. But then it used to on my old computer when I used a different CD burning program. Conversely, my cheapo second-hand portable CD player will play almost anything (but sometimes it also fails to read PC burned discs).
No doubt somebody else can explain all this better, but basically my experience is to try different burning software and/or blank CDs until you hit gold through trial and error.
Also, Piles is a dick.