By cleaning the drive I mean using a CD-ROM cleaner disk. They usually do a good job of cleaning any smudges or dust off the laser lens. If that doesn't work, then I'd say it's possible your drive is failing either because the laser has become weak, or the focusing mechanism has become faulty, causing it to not be able to read digital data. I wouldn't rule out a software problem either though. If you can use a Windows 98 boot floppy (assuming you have a floppy disk drive) to boot to a DOS prompt with CD-ROM support enabled, try accessing the drive using DOS commands. If you don't know how to do that, ask away, I'm very familiar with DOS and it's not too hard to use if you don't mind a little typing.
If you can open the laptop up, you might want to check the data cable connection to the drive as well. Sometimes if that works a little loose it can cause odd behavior.
well opening the laptop is WAAAAAAAY out of my league. ill leave that to woodsmand next time i see him. ill let him check it out cuz more than likely he'll spot something wrong than what i could ever spot. hopefully nothing is seriously wrong or is gonna cost me. ill use going to the store as a last result. thanks for the help Pho