COM port seems OK, but no communication

It is very strange and veeery >:( frustrating

Arduino Uno R3, with 16U2 comm. chip - quite original, from authorized distributor, box, pads, manual, etc.

Laptop 1, HP ProBoo, Win7 Pro 64 bit
GUI 1.6.7, with no install, just unzip
Has simple program to read BME280 sensor and print the result.
Working with PLX-DAQ too, for logging.
Everything works as it should, logging for days.

Laptop 2, HP Compaq 6910p, Win7 Pro 32 bit - quite old but still OK for such things
Same configuration, same GUI, board and port appears and right configured
Driver installation went OK.
But, if I try to program with my software or any simple example sketch...
аvrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1(10) of 10:not in sync: resp 0x20 (и 0x30) (from 10 attempts, 70% was 0x20 error)

As I said port appears, but no chance for communication - neither via GUI, neither via simple terminal or PLX-DAQ. It is just dead.
Moving to other laptop - works and programs as magic.

Try reinstall all PC drivers, few different GUIs.., nothing helps.

Any ideas? It seems like newbie question, and may be it is - but I use same setting on both PCs...

Last resort is reinstall entire Windows, but this will not make me understand the core of the problem.

Windows problem... go back to older restore point, install 1.6.5 and it is working.
It is possible I delete something more when I was cleaning unused COM ports.

Reinstall is needed anyway. Sorry for posting, hope can be useful for someone else.