Camera was working perfectly and now the pictures are all blurry and the flash wont work. please HELP!!!

This may sound crazy. We have a coolpix (different model) that took awful pictures from the beginning. Sent it back to nikkon repair center and they said they had to order a new lens...after we got it back (about six weeks) there was no difference. I started looking through all the pictures we had taken before and after and it dawned on me that the distortion was always in the same area of the pictures. Center outward toward the lower left and the exposure was always too long washing out the total image. I took a real close look at the lens front and sure enough found a tiny spot near the center. I tried to wash it off with water,then mild soap with no luck. Feeling like I had nothing to lose I resorted to goof-off and the spot softened and came off. The camera now works great! I hope something like this has happened to you and this helps.