Nikon D3000 says folder contains no images?

My Nikon (that has not been dropped and has no water damage) says "folder contains no images" when I press the playback button. I have tried taking pictures and the shutter works and it sounds like it's taking a picture and then nothing is there. I have tried taking out the battery and switching the memory card. How do I fix this? Any suggestions please.

You probably have 2 or more folders available in your camera and you are writing new pictures to 1 folder and playing back pictures from another folder

select the active playback folder in the playback Menu see page 117 in g the D3000 Manual

select the active folder you write pictures to in the setup menu see page 138
to simplify after downloading all pictures to your computer delete the empty files using the setup Menu options and from then on you will only be writing pictures to the default folder