Why is My Optical Drive malfunctioning?

When I start up my iMac, and when I wake it from sleep, my optical drive makes a lot of noise and tries to take in and eject a disc, two times for each action. It also doesn't recognise my attempts to insert discs.

e.g. I will try putting a disc in the drive and I can push it all the way in, put the drive does not notice, nor does it draw it in and read it. I need to put my computer into sleep mode and wake it for it to draw it in and read it.

I have tried updating my drive's firmware, yet the installer says I don't need it. I have also looked at google, and tried looking at the discussion boards, however I am unable to access them due to an error with the AppleID servers.

Is this a software problem or a hardware problem, and can i fix it?