Did you try cleaning the drive by means of a 'lens cleaning disc'? This will gently remove any dirt inside the DVD player mechanism.
It sounds to me like your optical drive has failed as your symptoms mimic what mine did when it went.
One thing you can try before buying a new drive is removing your old one and re-seating it a couple of times to see if maybe the connector on the drive just isn't seated right. This is unlikely but worth a shot.
You can replace the drive with a variety of different types, for instance this blu ray burner from LG would work:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136263
There are cheaper options available on Newegg if you don't desire a blu-ray burner. It just needs to be of the 'slim' variety. (Stuff that will work will look similar to the product I linked.)
Good luck!
One thing you can try before buying a new drive is removing your old one and re-seating it a couple of times to see if maybe the connector on the drive just isn't seated right. This is unlikely but worth a shot.
You can replace the drive with a variety of different types, for instance this blu ray burner from LG would work:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136263
There are cheaper options available on Newegg if you don't desire a blu-ray burner. It just needs to be of the 'slim' variety. (Stuff that will work will look similar to the product I linked.)
Good luck!
MB: ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 (Cooled by Corsair H100i w/ Noctua NF-F12 fans)
RAM: 64GB G.SKILL RipjawsZ 1600 (10-10-10-30)
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX Titan X Hybrid
TV Tuners: 2 * Hauppauge HVR-1800
Case: CoolerMaster Cosmos 2
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 (Cooled by Corsair H100i w/ Noctua NF-F12 fans)
RAM: 64GB G.SKILL RipjawsZ 1600 (10-10-10-30)
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX Titan X Hybrid
TV Tuners: 2 * Hauppauge HVR-1800
Case: CoolerMaster Cosmos 2
I think the drive might indeed have died.
A cheap way of checking it is a small tool that is called a slimline/slim to USB connector.
For example: http://m.ebay.com/itm?itemId=201065353285
Simply remove the internal player / connect it to any pc/laptop through the adapter to a usb port. If it doesn't work than you are sure it's dead.
A similar solution if you have a desktop dvd player lying around, is one of my favorite accessories : an IDE/SATA to USB connector, this allows you to connect any hdd/ssd/dvd player to any pc through usb!! Very handy and not that expensive.
Like this one : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002
Might come in handy!
A cheap way of checking it is a small tool that is called a slimline/slim to USB connector.
For example: http://m.ebay.com/itm?itemId=201065353285
Simply remove the internal player / connect it to any pc/laptop through the adapter to a usb port. If it doesn't work than you are sure it's dead.
A similar solution if you have a desktop dvd player lying around, is one of my favorite accessories : an IDE/SATA to USB connector, this allows you to connect any hdd/ssd/dvd player to any pc through usb!! Very handy and not that expensive.
Like this one : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002
Might come in handy!
My experience with laptops is that in general upgrading the cpu and or graphic card is not that simple, if possible at all. Some manufacturers Change/adapt sockets making it almost impossible to upgrade. On top of that, your system would in theory gain little from a cpu upgrade as this is limited to the motherboard / cpu socket... Things to consider: dram could gain, most stock laptops ship with 1 dram stick, Plain adding of a dram stick does not always give top performance gain :reason : the sticks might have different "internal" specs. So my advice: get 2 identical sticks from same manufacturer/batch. 2x4Gb for example or 2x2Gb I personally love to replace the stock hard drives with an SSD, booting is so much faster and loading times for programs... That's it on upgrades... For the rest run it till it dies..
