Optical drive bezel screws

Hi! It's not ideal, but the 3 screws can usually be left out without much consequence, as long as the rest of the machine is screwed together tightly and nothing is misaligned. You may want to remove the metal front piece that goes along the face of the optical drive and that the CD slides through, and take a look inside the front of the drive itself if you haven't already to see if you can spot the obstruction. There may be a loose screw in the drive blocking a CD. Or, there may be a CD in the drive. Or, sometimes drives get locked into a position in which they don't accept a CD, and generally powering on the computer and thereby supplying the drive with power lets it "reset" and hopefully return to a CD-accepting position. Lastly, the upper and lower strips of fuzzy material which line the metal adapter on the front of the drive often get bunched up, and often make it difficult or impossible to insert/remove a CD. I very commonly end up taking a pair of tweezers, and literally ripping out the top or bottom strip, or both, in order to avoid obstruction. This will cause the CD to eject more strongly than before, but it's not a serious issue and not something anyone ever notices. Anyway, hope that helps.