Antiq, how old is the CD player that won't read the disc? Wavelab defaults to the correct burning if you haven't changed it. It auto does "Red Book, closed session" burns. Some CD players cannot read certain media. If you are using newer media in an older CD player, this could be the problem. Try the CD in a few other players that are newer and see if it works.
I use WaveLab for all my mastering jobs...it's never failed me. Here's what you should also do just to be safe.
When I send out stuff to be duplicated to manufacturing plants, I always give them an audio CD burned at 1x and a data disc of the exact WaveLab files along with PQ sheets so if there is a problem with the audio disc, they have the data files as a back up and all they need to do is import the files to the PQ sheet numbers and they will have the exact same session as the audio CD I sent. I'd rather be safe than sorry and they can just throw the data disc in the trash....it's there for emergency only.
To do this and give them the exact wave files used in the WaveLab montage (what I mean by exact is, once you bring wave files into WL, you crossfade, edit beginnings and ends etc...those wave files need to be exported like that...the original wave files will not work.) you'll need to clone and save. Here's how to do it:
Go to file, save special montage and choose: Create exactly one file per clip. What this does is, it extracts the exact files out of the montage and compensates for any editing you may have done inside WaveLab. The help file says: "If this option is selected, every Clip in the Montage clone will refer to a unique file, containing only the audio used in the Clip. The files will be named after the Clips, with the addition of a number if several Clips have the same name."
This means, if someone at the plant were to bring these files into their mastering software, all beginnings and ends would be perfect. Nothing would need to be slip edited or crossfaded. All they would have to do is drop their markers in the beginnings and ends, and slide the clips to the times you give in the PQ sheets.
PQ Sheets: In case you're not aware of these or what they are, it's very important you create and send one of these to the duplication plant at all times. To do it, while in your montage, select the CD tab and then choose "generate/print audio CD report". When it opens, it should be set to the default which is "Absolute times" (pro format for replication factory) and it will show all the times, gaps , ISRC, UPC/EAN codes (if any) and you can save it as a text document and include it in the data CD you are including.
It should look a little something like this:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4909348/DDWLpq.pdf I just threw this together really fast so you could see it. But in this example (it's not gapped proerly or anything just yet) the key thing here is the word "pause" does not show up for the first 4 songs. You'll see it at song 5. The reason for this is, the first 4 songs are all segued together because I didn't want a pause in them. The track number will still change when you listen to it on CD, but there are no pauses in those first 4 songs. Without this pq sheet alerting the manufacturing plant of the lack of pauses, they may come through with the default 2 second pause. Of course you could just drop a little note in with your package telling them about the lack of pauses, but it's nice when they can see all this stuff to the numbers this way there is less of a chance for errors.
I'm not sure if WL Essential has these options because I have the full blown version, but I would assume it does and would look into it further. Best of luck and I hope this helps you. I wouldn't worry about the CD issue unless you are getting errors on several CD players. For final audio CD's sent to a duplication company, always burn at 1x speed if possible (no faster than 4x) and use the best CDR media you can afford. Good luck! :)