I have a similar problem to what is described here:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware/dv7-3079wm-BD-DVD-CD-drive-grinding-sound-won-t-read-CD-R-data/td-p/1211755

I have not tried anything in Windows (yet), but I'm getting desperate. It seems that the drivers need to reinstalled in the case of Windows, but what about Ubuntu?

I'm going to test this with a live USB and post the results, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

Output of sudo hwinfo --cdrom:

> hal.1: read hal dataprocess 18596: arguments to dbus_move_error() were incorrect, assertion "(dest) == NULL || !dbus_error_is_set ((dest))" failed in file ../../dbus/dbus-errors.c line 282.

This is normally a bug in some application using the D-Bus library.

libhal.c 3483 : Error unsubscribing to signals, error=The name org.freedesktop.Hal was not provided by any .service files

32: SCSI 400.0: 10602 CD-ROM                                    

  [Created at block.247]

  Unique ID: KD9E.cT9JzcqA6RE

  Parent ID: w7Y8.+Uo0cjWSIFA

  SysFS ID: /class/block/sr0

  SysFS BusID: 4:0:0:0

  SysFS Device Link: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.2/host4/target4:0:0/4:0:0:0

  Hardware Class: cdrom

  Model: "Optiarc BD ROM BC-5500S"

  Vendor: "Optiarc"

  Device: "BD ROM BC-5500S"

  Revision: "1.83"

  Driver: "ahci", "sr"

  Driver Modules: "ahci"

  Device File: /dev/sr0 (/dev/sg1)

  Device Files: /dev/sr0, /dev/cdrom, /dev/cdrw, /dev/disk/by-id/ata-Optiarc_BD_ROM_BC-5500S, /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:1f.2-scsi-4:0:0:0, /dev/dvd, /dev/dvdrw

  Device Number: block 11:0 (char 21:1)

  Drive status: no medium

  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

  Attached to: #20 (SATA controller)

  Drive Speed: 16

It says here no medium, but I have a blank CD in the drive.