Won't even read cd's- autostart fails... (by 2 users)

It is my understanding that the laser in the optical drive has to
change it's characteristics depending on the media it's reading (or
writing). I believe what the drive does is try different laser
settings (such as beam size, and intensity) until it can read the
media. Your drive probably has a fault with this feature. You can try buying one of those CD/DVD cleaning disk kits at a music or electronics store. Maybe cleaning the lens on the laser will make a difference. Best way to clean it though is manualy, if you know how to open it up without causing damage. If this doesn't help, you probably need a new drive, even though trying to reinstall the firmware/drivers is also an option.

Let us know what worked if any ;]

Got the same problem with my desktop where my samsung cd-rw/dvd combo drive is installed. After a few months of minimal use it can no longer read data/audio/video cds except for DVDs. So I browsed samsung website & started downloading updates and religiously followed their suggested solutions posted on their website but to no avail. So the best solution that I did was I bought a new cd writer/dvd drive(no longer samsung! mind you) then I emailed them a litany of my frustrations and believe me they never have the guts to email me back not even a hint on what to do with their junk product!