CD Drive seems to be stuttering

[AbsoluteParadigm]

My CD drive on my Toshiba Satelite laptop has been acting up for the past week or so. When I insert a disc, it seems to be stuck in a cycle of startup spin and then stopping. Sometimes, it recognizes a disc and displays the contents but when I attempt copy files off or attempt to open files, the drive begins to stutter. It's not a loud sound but like a series of clicks, like it's trying to read it but something is stopping it. I think the warrenty is gone. The drive is a Matshita UJDA730 DVD/CDRW. Please advise as to how to get it working again. It's a fixed drive, so if it's gone, I will not have many CD/DVD reading capabilities.