New
#51
Good to hear you have it sorted out.
Any chance the optical drive is bad? If I remember correctly most (all?) optical drives have separate laser units; one for DVDs and one for CDs. Would you happen to have access to an external DVD/CD drive to see if that plays your CDs? Have you tried the Microsoft Troubleshooter?
Open the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter
Have you considered trying a commercially available cleaning kit?
It looks like you are right. There are two optical lens that I didn't notice before. What type of cleaning kits?
I ran the Troubleshooter and it said "ENE CIR Receiver had some problems" but it could not fix it. So I searched online for it and downloaded it here: ENE CIR Receiver Driver for Microsoft Windows 7 | HP® Support
Then ran the Troubleshooter again and the message wasn't there. But it did say the following and nothing else:
"Hardware changes might not have been detected"
I don't know what the heck that means.
Wow, this is embarrassing! I used a microfiber cloth and some premium grade glass cleaner on the optical lens. And that fixed my problem.
marsmimar, thanks for suggesting I clean it!
My whole computer is now back in working order, thanks to all you fine people.
Good call, Lee. Need to remember that one. Wish I could rep you again.