Corrupt ISO images, anyone?

["S. Adkins" <negative erebos net>]

I have downloaded the ISO's from 2 different source and i have files that have md5 checksums on both..  Could this just be a problem with my images, my hardware, or ??  I have never had problems burning my own ISO's before.

In fact, I became aware of this problem when doing a fresh install off my burned ISO's.  The install went well enough, but when the box came up I knew i had problems because the box did not even as for root's password, and other problems.  I suspected corrupt RPMS on the CD's.  I verified my suspicion by checking the md5sums, and many were indeed bad.  

I was able to "fix" my install by downloading lots and lots of RPMS, directly to my disk, and installing from there.  What I am wondering is, could my hardware be causing these checksum errors (Im a running a Fireport40 (Symbios) UW Scsi, 1 Toshiba CD reader, and a Seagate 9.1 Cheetah UW Scsi disc.  Currently I am terminating the scsi chain at the Cheetah Drive.. (And it works well enough in all other OS's this way, i have no problems installing NT(ugh).

Thanks