random failure mounting root fs

I'm have an entire self-installing app on a bootable cd created using mkisofs. I use isolinux bootloader to boot from cd with root=/dev/hda (my cdrom drive). Sometimes the process works fine, root is mounted and INIT starts up. Others I get this

attempt to access beyond end of device
03:00: rw=0, want=33, limit=2
isofs_read_super: bread failed, dev=03:00, iso_blknum=16, block=32

Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:00

I am not understanding why I would get such a random failure. Does this have to do with the CDROM drive speed? Is it preventable?

mkisofs v1.13
isolinux v1.76
2.2 and 2.4 kernels

Thanks
Lee

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