Ubuntu – Cannot view, use, or open CDs or DVDs in Ubuntu 12.04

I am fairly new to Ubuntu 12.04 and I have encountered a rather irritating problem. Whenever I insert a CD or DVD (whether it have data, music, movies, or nothing at all), nothing pops up saying "you have inserted a CD", "play with Rhythmbox?" etc. It doesn't show the CD in the launcher/dock or anything of the sort.
This is especially peculiar because not only do I have a standard IDE built-in optical drive, but I have an external USB optical drive. Neither work.
In addition, whenever I go to "Computer///" and I click (double click, right click, or even left click) on "CD/DVD Drive" nothing happens, when I right click and select "Open" nothing happens either [for either of the two drives (both are listed in Computer///)]
And if I insert a blank disk and go to a disk burning program such as Brasero, and try to burn to the drive it detects no CDs or DVDs of any kind.

I'm rather stumped and can't seem to find a question similar to this. 🙁

Thanks for all your help in advance!! 🙂
~Preston

Output of sudo lshw

*-cdrom
               description: DVD-RAM writer
               product: CD/DVDW TS-H652M
               vendor: TSSTcorp
               physical id: 0.0.0
               bus info: scsi@5:0.0.0
               logical name: /dev/cdrom
               logical name: /dev/cdrw
               logical name: /dev/dvd
               logical name: /dev/dvdrw
               logical name: /dev/sr0
               version: 0414
               capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram
               configuration: ansiversion=5 status=nodisc

*-cdrom
         description: DVD reader
         product: DVD Writer 300n
         vendor: HP
         physical id: 0.0.0
         bus info: scsi@4:0.0.0
         logical name: /dev/cdrom2
         logical name: /dev/cdrw2
         logical name: /dev/dvd2
         logical name: /dev/sr1
         version: 1.25
         serial: [
         capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd
         configuration: status=nodisc