Autorun and/or Setup Doesn't Work

I'm not sure what is going on lately, but I recently reintalled Windows XP Home on my laptop. It seemed to be working for for a while, but now about 50% of the time the Autorun or Setup files do not run when I put a new CD in my drive. For instance, I wanted to install my Kensington Mouseworks program and when placed the CD in the drive nothing happened; then, when I double-clicked on the Setup file that is on the CD nothing happened. Secondly, I am also trying to install Microsoft ActiveSync. I have tried doing this two ways, from the CD that I have, or by downloading the newest version and using it. Either way, it extracts the files to some unknown location, then does nothing. When I search for the files that it extracted, I can't find them. I also have some computer games (like MS Age of Mythology) that it does this same thing with. However, I don't experience this problem with all programs. Does anyone have any idea of how to deal with this problem, without having to do another reinstall? I will appreciate any help that someone can give me. Thank you very much.