When playing wav's, mid's etc my sound card functions normally. But when I play an audio cd, I hear nothing thru the speakers but know that the cd is playing. I then plugged in my earphones into the small hole where the cdrom is located & I heard the music playing from the audio cd & it sounded great. I am wondering though, why no sound thru the speakers when my audio cd's play until I plug in my earphones. All other multimedia stuff plays fine.

Your CD player has a cable that goes from the player to the system or sound card. That cable is either bad, non existant, or loose. If you opened up your PC you would see it as a little stand alone cable with two or 4 wires leading to your sound card or mother board if the sound card is built into the mother board as many of them are now.

Also double click on the little speaker icon at the bottom right of the screen and see if any of the items are muted. There is one labeled cd audio.