CD Drive - auto play and audio CD problem

hey people....since my computer was set up my CD drive
has only partly worked...I can explore cds, and take
files off them etc....but am unable to auto start
anything, or play audio CDs...in Windows Media Player the
song names go red one by one and then it fails.

I have asked about it before and have been lead round my
computers setting changing values etc but nothing
worked....I am pretty sure it's a hardware problem, my
friend mentioned something about the sound card.

Could sombody pleeeeeeease help?

Thanks
Alex