I'm pretty sure that would be why you found it easier. I've not had any problems with mine that have been babied. Especially anything from the era when it got ripped to mp3 and never touched again.
I had to change the settings, on default it would take an hour and still fail. I as happier if it failed fast, I clean the disk and try again for switch to XLD. It's the sector by sector thing that dbpoweramp does that I had to adjust.
Did you dial down the accuracy demands?