Playing burned CD's on standard CD players

I'm going mad. I can burn CD's using wmp9 or Real Player or Nero etc. but no matter what I do the CD's I write won't play on any of my home CD players or, for that matter, on anybody elses. I've been told by the people who provided my PC (which is in every other respect excellent) that my CD players just don't play CD-R's, but this isn't true coz I have played CD-R's that other people have made.

Does my CD rewriter suck? Please help before I throw the whole thing out the window!

Hug
Maldon, Essex. UK