Hi welcome to TSF

i would start by taking the drive out of laptop and putting it back in. to do this usually you would just take one cover off then their will be one screw holding the drive in. remove the screw and pull the drive out then reverse the steps to put back together.

 

If that fails, the drive may have failed. You can get another one from Ebay. Acer 5734Z dvd drive | eBay

 

Ocer1, Thank you for your quick and informative response. While I am very mechanical, I have little experience trouble shooting PC problems and almost no experience removing PC hardware. Your directions for removing my DVD drive were excellent and I did as you suggested, however, it did not resolve the problem. I find this issue a little curious because the drive was working perfectly until after using it successfully I left it open (partially closed) for a couple of hours and when I went to power down my laptop it wouldn't close. When I do push it in to close, mysteriously the eject mechanism clicks as if I were pushing the eject button and the green led is flashing. I am very perplexed. Any suggestions before I purchase a replacement drive from Ebay. Btw, the only available replacement seems to be a "used" drive. That alone worries me with respect to how long will that last??? Again, thanks for your help!

 

It could very well be a faulty drive. You don't have to get it from eBay just Google search for drive for your model laptop.

 

Unfortunately hardware can fail at anytime with little or no warning. It may just have been a coincidence that you left it open when it failed. You can get a brand new drive from Ebay or a used one if you want to save some money. You also don't have to buy from Ebay, you can get one from Amazon or any other computer retailer like NewEgg