Windows Vista vista cd/dvd drive issues

ok, so this is a crappy one for anyone interested...partially because I'm pretty green still. so here it goes.
My cd/dvd drive won't auto play anything. in fact, on most discs, it doesn't even recognize the disc. on some discs, if I restart the computer with the disc in it, it'll recognize it then, however this only works sometimes.
what I've tried:
I've adjusted the autorun features, and set it to automatically run everything.
I've gone into the registry and changed the HKEY......explorer nodriveautorun keys to A: 0 and B:deleted
and the nodrivetypeautorun to A:91 B:95 C:80 D:145
also, I've attempted to change the HKEY_localmachine...sevices...cdrom key to 1 to make sure that it's running. because it's set to 0.

the results...absolutely nothing.
as soon as I change the values, and exit, they automatically reset. forget trying to restart the computer (actually laptop, toshiba a305d if you care). it just resets, then and there.
also, I've attempted to update the driver. and download the autofix from the microsoft website. doesn't help. with the autofix, when I try to run it It gets to where it asks for the drive with the error, and when I click on it, it stops responding, and shuts down.
PLEASE HELP!!! this is really starting to bother me.

 

cd/dvd drive issues

thanks, I'll try the drive cleaning kit...anythings worth a shot. but it's a brand new laptop, and I forgot to post the fact that the drive also doesn't open sometimes. I've gone as far as waiting for 45 minutes for the damned thing. and ended up restarting, so that I could get the cd out of it. so, we'll see. I'll post back if it doesn't work.

 

Try resetting the filters:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929461/en-us

Look at the software you may have installed that would involve the drive.

You can try going to Start -> Computer, right-click on the drive and select Eject, but I might expect that a program might have it "locked" in the drive. If you have installed Nero's program InCD or another type of Packet Writing program, that could be the reason.

Matt