I have a Dell Inspiron 8600, Windows XP Pro

Ok so my CD ROM started working incorrectly the other day.  First of all, when starting up the laptop, the drive tries to spin a CD when there isn't one there.  Then when you do insert a CD in, and then go to eject it, it spins it first and kicks out the cd while it's still spinning.  It also will not play any DVD's.  It knows they are there, but will not play them.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.