I press the button and I hear it trying, but it won’t eject. It sometimes won’t close all the way when I insert a disc and I have to manually flip the door shut, so I manually open this door before trying to eject, but no luck.
Have you tried sticking an unbent paper clip into the little hole near the button?
I resorted to needlenose pliers on my laptop. 
I don’t see any hole.
Are you talking about a standalone DVD player or one on your computer?
And if it’s a computer, is it a laptop or a desktop?
Sorry. I’m talking about a drive on my desktop.
No, there is no hole like that that I can see. I have an Acer, bought in Apr 2007 if that helps.
Hmm. I had no direct contact with Acer desktops, but from googled pics it looks like actual drive is hidden behind mask. You can PROBABLY remove mask simply by popping it gently and get access to actual front panel of drive (as I can do in both mine non-acer desktops), but it’s better to wait for somebody with Acer experience (or possibly check manuals).
This may be a stupid question, but have you tried opening the drive from the computer? You know: go to My Computer, right click on the DVD and press “Eject.” If the problem is with the button itself, that may do the job.
my computer has been doing this for some time now (I’m not sure how long as I rarely actually use my DVD drive.) For me at least, it is something to do with my operating system (Vista 64) because the drive opens and closes just fine before the computer boots up (but after its turned on, of course.) But after the boot nothing but the straightened paper clip will do the trick. Oddly, except for that, the drive works fine. It has no problems actually reading the disk.
What do you mean by “mask”? The door that flips down?
Eject didn’t work. Neither did trying to open it while booting up.
Yes, flip down that door manually, and look behind it. It’s possible that there’s a regular DVD drive with one of those insertion holes behind this door.
(I have a new Dell desktop computer that does this. The actual DVD drive is hidden behind a door, and there is a protuberance that causes the door to flip down when the drive opens, or I can flip the door open manually.)
I’ll be surprised if there isn’t a normal DVD unit (with hole) behind the mask. I have a Medion with a mask and I can still manually flip the door down and stick a paperclip in the DVD unit when needed. I need some good light and it has to be at sort of an angle, but I can get to it.
Look at picture in step 2. This is how my drive looks, but only the top part. There is no lower part, the one with the release hole.
Wait a minute. Checked again with a flashlight. I think I found the hole but it’s below the part of the drive that is easily visible. It looks awfully tiny for a paper clip though.
So I got the paper clip to work, but it didn’t solve the ultimate problem, because I have to use it every time. Any suggestions? Thanks for all the advice, everyone.
I recommend replacing the drive entirely, as a new internal DVD burner can be purchased for $20-30.