Hey. I greatly appreciate your effort here. Let me respond:
1) I found the Device Manager location you depicted. No, the Esoteric (“E”) is not listed …at least, not in nomenclature I would understand. The list is a bit long.
2) Yes, the E does have an off/on button and no, Windows does not seem to recognize the CD player. That is, I get no indication (pop up message) that it does.
3) I don’t know what a DNLV device is, but the E is most definitely designed to play tracks from a computer via USB cable connection. Thus, the driver E provides (as a download).
4) You say; “… as for outputs, you have an optical & coax for digital, NO USB for digital outs”. That is correct, but neither optical nor coax are necessary as outputs from the E, as I am using an XLR connection between the E and my pre-amp.
5) On the PC (Dell Inspiron 3847), on the back panel, there are only 2 USB ports left that are not occupied. There is one “HDMI” port, but I can see it’s not designed to accept a USB connector. USB ports on the back panel must be for output … those on the front are inputs.
6) I have no idea what you mean by “Country B”, but I cannot use optical cable, as I don’t have it. My PC (desk top) is on one side of the house, my sound system at the other. I am running 65 ft of USB cable and I would have to purchase same for optical.
Appears the only area left to explore is the downloaded driver with E. I placed a call to E yesterday, but probably won’t be able to communicate until Monday.
Thank you again for your time & effort. TK