CD Player saying 'no disc" after cleaning laser.

[Phil the Fluter]

I've just bought a Rotel CD-991 and it frequently skipped (or at least lost sound for a moment) during playback. It did it at some point with almost every disc I tried although all discs played perfectly for 99+% of the time. Replaying a track after a skip would not produce a skip at the original skip point so I suppose the fault lay in the CD player rather than in the discs.

Being an intrepid sort, I today took the top of the case off and-cleaned the laser lens with a camera lens-brush (no fluids) and now, whenever I insert a disc, it says 'No disc'.

When I insert a CD, the tray closes and the disc rotates about 90 degrees clockwise, then pauses for a moment, then moves another 45 degrees clockwise.

The display then shows the 'No disc' message.

I've done this in a darkened room and at no stage does the laser flash.

Woe is very much me.

Can anyone help?