I have the Shaker 500 and I burn all my cd's in mp3 to play on it and I never had a problem and they all play fine (I get 125+ songs per cd). I burn mine using iTunes on a Mac if that matters.
No problem here. What format is the CD in that you made? Is it a copy of the real one, MP3s, or other? Haven't tried making an MP3 one but maybe the CD needs to be finalized (not able to be written to again)?
There were known problems with the head units several years ago. I have the Skipper 1000 in my 2005 GT, and I went through 3 (or was it 4) head units back in 2005 before I got one that didn't skip. It had trouble with store bought CDs, burnt CDs, and anything else I put in it. One of them jammed up so bad they had to send it out to have my CDs removed and mailed back to me.