you should check if the system detects the superdrive first. if not, then it'd probably be best to just exchange for a new one.
I encountered the same problem, superdrive was never recognized by osx. called apple, tried everything, took it to an apple store, and they basically just advised me to exchange for a new one rather than trying to get it fixed.
It does seem to be a rather common problem with the mbp. Some type of hardware problem i suppose.