The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media

[cocotu]

I have been looking for this answer since this morning with no resolution. This morning using Disk Utility I was trying to burn an .iso image. I have done it before successfully. Then I go the error indicated in the subject:

The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media.

This is the log from Disk Utility:

Aug 28 09:58:11: Disk Utility started.
Burning Image "<file.iso>"
Preparing data for burn
Opening session
Opening track
Writing track
Closing session
Finishing burn
Burn failed
The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media. Unable to burn "<file.iso>"- The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media..

I doing the burning in another mac and is working fine. I'm having this problem in the server.

[baf]

Looks like either a burner hardware problem or some media it didn't like.
Can you burn that exact disk in another computer? Can you burn some other disk in the server? Those two questions should give you an idea where the problem is. Oh a third one have you burned that type/brand before in the server.

[cocotu]

1. I was able to burn the exact disk in another computer. At the end of the burning I got message: "Verification of the burn failed" not sure what that means, but I'm able to access the contents of the DVD.

2. Every time I insert a DVD disk at the server it ejects the disk after 20 seconds, when I insert a CD-R everything works fine and I'm able to burn. (this may indicate that the server doesn't like this brand of media)

3. Yes, we have use this type of media (Staples).

thanks for your help

[baf]

Burning a iso-file and seeing "Verification of the burn failed" means BAD BAD.
Either bad media or some other problem. The exact meaning is that the contents of the disk is NOT exactly the same as what you wanted. Perhaps the first computer manged to harm it? Anyway reburn it.

To me it looks like the burner in the first computer is dead. Do you have Applecare take it to a repair man.

[cocotu]

I was able to burn a CD-R in the server. Can the DVD burning be damaged and the CD-R part working? Don't they use the same optical lens? I also noticed at the server in the disk utility logs:

Unable to verify "<file.iso>"
This image has no checksum information to verify.

Does it means is corrupt?? thanks

[trevor]

I was able to burn a CD-R in the server. Can the DVD burning be damaged and the CD-R part working? Don't they use the same optical lens?

My understanding is that CD burning and DVD burning use separate lenses and separate lasers.

Have you tried a cleaning DVD? There's no evidence yet that anything is damaged, it could just be dusty.

Trevor

[baf]

Hmm interesting frankly here we have two different issues obviouly
1: An iso-file seems to be able to have a checksum so the file can be verified.
2: A cd-burner program can be set to verify the disk meaning compare every byte on the disk with the input. I assume that this is what you saw when you burned the file. Another way to check is to use dd and read the whole dvd to a file and then use diff to compare that and the original.
In terminal something like:
dd if=/dev/rdisk1s0 of=/path/to/new/file bs=2048
diff /path/to/new/file isofile

this should either say nothing = OK
or Binary files x and y differ
the latter meaning either that I have misremembered or that there really is a problem.
And finally yes I think a burner can stop making DVD:s but still be able to make CD:s

[macosnoob]

Seconding Trevor: A google search on your error message reveals that many people have solved their problems by running a CD/DVD cleaning disc through the burner to clean the lenses.

[landrick]

I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...

[Mikey-San]

I don't believe it either. I doubt that was the solution to a hardware problem of this nature, since it doesn't have anything at all to do with your CD/DVD burner.

[Ironhead]

I also can't believe it, but guess what... it worked for me too - on a Mac Pro. you're a genius, landrick. but you have all of the Mac techs here wondering how you came up with this, or what lead you to it.

[Ironhead]

i meant to mention that i very deliberately did nothing between receiving the error and applying this fix. i even searched for the error on a different box.

[Cenacle]

Thanks so much, it worked! Wow, no clue why, but thank you!

[ThreeBKK]

Hmm… three brand new members pop-up inside of a week and claim that this very unlikely trick works on their Macs. Something seems out of place here.

[Mikey-San]

Hmm… three brand new members pop-up inside of a week and claim that this very unlikely trick works on their Macs. Something seems out of place here.

Yeah, something is awry. Very curious that they all came out of nowhere as soon as one guy's unbelievable solution was questioned, and that these are their first posts.

[JDV]

The proposed fix, while not precisely intuitive, is harmless enough, it seems to me; I don't see that anyone would do any damage to their system to try it if they faced that problem. Why the somewhat stronger-than-expected reaction? If others try it and it doesn't work, I'm sure we'll hear about it. It wouldn't be the first time in my experience that something off-the-wall was successful in resolving a problem, though I certainly have no better insight than anyone else why this ought to have the reported effects.

Joe VanZandt

[Mikey-San]

No one is saying not to do it, but voodoo that can't be explained should be questioned, especially when we're talking about computers, where everything can be explained. This is a troubleshooting forum, and good troubleshooting needs good understanding of what's going on.

I don't buy this fix. Out of nowhere, after it's questioned, new members make their first posts to say (only) that it worked. Heck, Ironhead registered after I said I didn't buy it, just to post in this thread, it would appear. I can't see Cenacle's profile, so I don't know his specific join date, but that is his only post. This doesn't strike you as strange somehow?

[Ironhead]

Mikey - your assumption is correct! in fact i did register here just to post to this thread after successfully applying the fix then reading of your disbelief. after confirming the fix worked, i thought i'd help encourage others with the same issue who were also doubtful.

i still can't wrap my brain around why this works, but i maintain that it does. i don't usually have the luxury of analyzing curiosities like this. i'm responsible for 125 MacPros across three states and a lot of what i do is "meatball surgery" i.e. i get 'em back up and move on to the next one.

tell y'all what: i'll run this by Apple Engineering and see what (if anything) they have to say. maybe our incredibly expensive Enterprise Support contract will turn out to be worth the money.

one caveat on the fix: it seems that it needs to be repeated prior to each successive burn.

(did anyone else notice that this thread is the number one hit when googling "The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media"?)

[Las_Vegas]

(did anyone else notice that this thread is the number one hit when googling "The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media"?)

Especially if you use the title of the thread verbatim. MacOSXHints does tend to rank highly on Google since it's one of the most linked to resources for Mac solutions.

[Ironhead]

from Apple support:

"Perhaps there is a communication problem somewhere so that the proper region code can not be determined."

[JDV]

Well, that makes nearly as much sense as the fix--namely, very little. What could region codes possibly have to do with burning data to a blank DVD? I don't think you have yet got your money's worth from your support agreement. Does it ADD a region code to a DVD you produce? I didn't know that, if it does.

Joe VanZandt

[rebecca_kostya]

I am a newbie here and to macs in general (I have owned an imac for 3 months), so I have no explanations for any of this either. I was attempting to burn the second disc ever on this machine, music files onto a Memorex cd-r, when I got the cursed error about the laser not calibrating, or whatever. After trying a few times with other discs, I did a search, found this thread, and decided to give that strange fix a try since it seems harmless enough. Sure enough, I moved around the intl. language settings as directed and restarted and she's burning again. I haven't made any more cds to figure out if this "fix" will be required each time I want to burn something (hopefully not...that could get pretty irritating), but Im feeling like a success story all the same. I am looking forward to hearing more about this from all you pros out there.

Thanks for the great input!
-Rebecca in North Pole, Alaska

[ThreeBKK]

one caveat on the fix: it seems that it needs to be repeated prior to each successive burn.

It sounds as though you have had many encounters with this error message. Have you tried eliminating steps from the recipe to determine if there are any extraneous steps? For example: It might be that only the last step (restart) actually does any good.

[bartpop]

I encountered this problem recently. First time I have ever had received this message and tried the International Language solution posted above. It worked immediately and I was able to burn a disc successfully. My guess is that it somehow clears the DVD region setting? In any case, it works!

[cocotu]

Well, i'm the one who posted this thread. Should I try that "fix" and let you guys what happen?

[cocotu]

Since I gave up on this a while ago I haven't try to burn a DVD for months. Now when I insert a DVD disk the computer ejects the DVD within 10-15 seconds. This does NOT happen with a CD. We burn a CD every friday. I followed the steps about changing the international settings, but still have not re-started the computer. Since this is a server a have a some user connected at this time. I will re-start in the morning and post the results. thanks..

[cocotu]

Ok, that trick did NOT work for me. As I mentioned before I gave up a long time ago. Before trying the supposed solution my DVD drive keep ejecting the DVD disk after 10 seconds of being inside. I tried the "fix" suggested before and nada!! thanks

[Ironhead]

here's Apple's other suggestion... "Reset the SMC on this unit: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304123" i haven't bothered testing it yet. of course they also recommended the thoughtless "... wipe the drive - reinstall the OS... "

also, a note to ThreeBKK & cocotu: i learned i do not have to actually restart the system, only log out then back into the profile i was using.

[ThreeBKK]

That's a step in the right direction. I wonder if there are any other steps which can be eliminated from the recipe.

[jb_]

I could NOT BELIEVE it, but this fix worked for me. I had been trying to burn a DVD over and over and thought maybe the drive was broken. Changed the International settings and it worked fine after that!

But the problem recurred last night when I was trying to burn a CD, and the fix didn't work. Maybe it only works for DVD-burning? I tried a different CD, at a lower speed, and then it worked. Strange huh?

[ThreeBKK]

jb: Are you saying that you didn't have to restart?

[Mikey-San]

But the problem recurred last night when I was trying to burn a CD

So in other words, it did not work for you.

My guess is that it somehow clears the DVD region setting

The region setting is stored in a setting on the drive. Otherwise, DVD drives could not be region-locked.

Honestly, after all the people I've seen say this "fix" doesn't do anything for them, or the problem just comes back . . . it sounds like coincidence involving some sort of intermittent hardware or media issue. (Or they're restarting and not always saying they are.)

[johngpt]

Have any of the persons who had posted about having this problem with burning, tried burning from a different user account?

The original poster was running OS X server 10.4.6, but how about the others?

I read in one of the posts, from Rebecca, that she had used memorex media. I've always had problems with memorex on my macs. I have best success with verbatim or sony. Might the brand of media be part of the problem?

[jb_]

jb: Are you saying that you didn't have to restart?
Forgotten now, but yeah I think I did have to restart.
So in other words, it did not work for you.
read my post again
The original poster was running OS X server 10.4.6, but how about the others?
This happened (and the fix worked) on 10.5.0. I have, however, also had this problem with Tiger. I don’t know if the fix works on Tiger though, I didn't find it until after I'd upgraded to Leopard; I'd always thought my computer just had a flakey drive.

[jb_]

Honestly, after all the people I've seen say this "fix" doesn't do anything for them, or the problem just comes back . . . it sounds like coincidence involving some sort of intermittent hardware or media issue. (Or they're restarting and not always saying they are.)
I had tried everything before the fix, re-installing the OS, using multiple burn programs, different media, resetting P-RAM etc. It is not an "intermittent" problem that a simple reboot will fix

Maybe after you've experienced the problem yourself and have tried the fix, you'll be qualified to comment?

[simongrantkent]

I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...


Hi all,

Just thought I should post to say that the above fix worked for me.

Simon

[rob_mac]

I was tasked by a friend to do a dvd for a party this evening...everything was going great until last night's burning of the dvds!! I got this "laser calibration" error & sometimes just a general "medium" error.

I went out bought new dvds, cleaner but nothing was working. I almost had to post this movie on youtube for my friend vs. having a dvd everyone could watch on TV at the party.

This odd but very successful "fix" did just that.
I burned many dvds on my macmini in the past but it went belly up for the first time last night.

I'm running OS X 10.4.11 1.33ghz PowerPC G4 with Matshitadvd-r UJ-845 burner.

Thanks again for posting this fix - you saved me buying a new burner & my friend some big-time embarrassment!
I also joined today just to post back that this fix is definitely legit...

[fostsi_1]

I had the same problem with a CD-R 700Mb from Sony. My iMac G5 PPC is now happily burning away after applying the fix with just a logout, not reboot... Okay, hold the phone...

The burner completed it's duties but verification did not go so well.

"This disc could not be verified and might be unreliable. Try again using a new blank disc. (Error code 0x80020063)"

However, upon loading the dodgy disc and opening it in Finder, bearing in mind that I put a bunch of photos there, only some of the thumbs loaded. Then, rather strangely, the spinning umbrella, and then Finder completely relaunched: desktop icons, dock, open Finder windows, everything reloaded.

Next up... take Apple's advice and try a new cd.

[dfiore]

oddly enough this worked for me. although it does not hold, and has to be redone for each successive burn.

also to note i got 75% into the burn after not being able to start the burn , but all burns fail to the media (hp dl dvd)

dave

[walkingfern]

Hi,
If it makes any of you feel better, the language solution didn't work for me.

I still get the same "failed to calibrate the laser power level" message no matter how I burn, what speed, or what media.

I've tried cleaning, dusting, lowering the speed to 4x, changing media, upgrading to latest iTunes, using the Finder to burn instead of iTunes and, of course, the System Preferences/International language solution.

And I had such high hopes...

I'm desperate. It worked fine with the same media 2 weeks ago. What does everyone else think?

Thanks, Judy

[johngpt]

It worked fine with the same media 2 weeks ago. What does everyone else think?

Thanks, Judy
What may have changed about your system in this intervening two weeks? Might you have installed new software, or upgraded/updated some software?

[ThreeBKK]

For all of the people posting that this fix works, or doesn't work, please be sure to mention what model optical drive you are using. Example: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857E. Also, try to remember whether or not you have applied any of the SuperDrive Firmware Updates (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/firmware_hardware/superdrivefirmwareupdatev20.html).

[vicm]

I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...

Didn’t work for me. I’m using a 20" core2 iMac. 10.5.1. firmware update yielded a message stating it wasn't necessary. hopefully we find a definitive fix here...

[ThreeBKK]

Thanks vicm.
Which model SuperDrive do you have in your iMac?
Were you also burning an .iso image?

[zahnast]

The language fix works for me... i'll certainly look into WHY it worked!

[theBassFace]

My Mac mini superdrive has been all kinds of flaky. I also got the laser power calibration error, and tried the fix (just log out, no reboot), to no avail. Then, I tried another of the Memorex (shudder) 3-pack of DVD+R DL and the second one seemed to work! Well, it got burning anyway. Got about half way and threw 'Unable to burn "NAME" - The device failed to respond properly, unable to recover or retrv..' I hate these drives. Major Apple failure. Third disc gives same error as first. I'll try with better media and post an update.

Also, in the past, I was unable to burn DVDs. CDROMs were fine, but 19-20 DVDs were spit out in 10 seconds. I followed one site's suggestion of a *carefully* blowing little compressed air in the slot. I did this (not full bursts, just some light touches) and it has worked since (20-30 burns). This was a different problem than the laser calibration one. In that one, the DVDs were accepted, the data checksummed, and then the error. The compressed air fix helped when the DVDs are not even being accepted (for more than 10 seconds). Hope this helps someone. Drive data below.


MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-846:

Firmware Revision: FM3J
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: No

MEMOREX 3pk DVD+R DL (red box)

[rebecca_kostya]

I originally posted some time back that I attempted this fix with success some time ago on my 20" aluminum imac running Tiger, but didn't use the burner frequently enough to really assess whether it had been a lasting fix or not.

Well, I have used the burner this month to burn about 40 discs with all different types of files and media and have not encountered the "laser failed to calibrate" message a second time. (Knock on wood, though, eh?) All aspects of the burning process have gone on without a hitch. I don't know what this means in the grand scheme of things, but if you're having a similar issue, don't be discouraged by the folks that claim the fix doesn't work and just give it a try for yourself, because it apparently does in some cases.

Side note: I don't know if this is a note-worthy factor or not, but I realized this week that I have never played a dvd on my machine, only created some, so my mac has never set its dvd region code. (Since I can only change 5 times, and I am pretty international, I am saving those 5 changes for when I really need the dvd player.)

-Rebecca
North Pole, Alaska

Oh, and per the request, my burner type is OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5630A
I have never sought out a firmware update, but the computer tells me the firmware revision is 1AHM, for whatever that's worth.

[PhilFaber]

Good grief!

The fix really does work!

Interesting point though for any of those of you who didn't get it to work...

When selecting the languages, it seems you MUST choose "US English" (as per the example) and not just "English". There's something about the US version which makes it work. I initially just selected "English" (as I'm not in the USA) and did the 'dragging' bit and it failed.

Hope that helps someone.

Whatever next? Fixing disc problems by changing the screen saver?


I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...

[Frobozz]

why[/I] this works, but i maintain that it does....

YES ... I just had the same error on a new box of Memorex DVD- DL 8.5 2.4x .... Did the rather "odd" workaround, and burned the first DVD. Then turned right around and followed my friend Charly's directions to back up my new Leopard Install DVD, and that worked fine w/o going thru the original International Preferences stuff.


[QUOTE=
(did anyone else notice that this thread is the number one hit when googling "The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media"?)[/QUOTE]

Yes, that is how I found the (odd) fix for the issue.

And, to the nice naysayers up-thread, notice I am not necessarily a first-time poster.

[tofirius]

Just so that I was on the safe side, I rebooted, then tried my burn again... no worky. So I tried the "international" fix, & then tried my burn again... no worky.

I have a 12" Powerbook G4 with the Matsushita UJ-835E & I'm trying to burn Maxell CD-R 48x. I tried the burns at 8x & 24x. No difference in results.

[naturalblue]

Hi,

I just registered to say that I did try the "fix" and it didn't work.
I did, however, tried switching my media from Memorex DVD-R 16x disc to a TDK DVD-R 16x disc, and it worked fine.

I have never had any problems with the TDK, as I have used over 100 discs in the last year, with only 1 or 2 bad burns, and not with this same message.

I'm assuming the type of media is factoring into this, but I do not know how to find a resoultion for this issue.

[ayarbro]

:D:D:D

Ok, gotta say, that's one of the strangest work-arounds I've ever encountered. I have a 2GHz Core Duo Mac Mini and was having burn and CD/DVD recognition issue's. Didn't want the apple care downtime so wanted to get this fixed myself. I took it apart and cleaned the laser, it recognized the DVD/CD's but still wouldn't burn. The error changed to the failed to adjust laser power for media error, found this post and it worked like a charm. Very strange.

Thank you very much!!!:D:D:D

[schadenfreude]

I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...

arcane, random, but much to my surprise, it does indeed work.

[ubrgeek]

Bullocks. It doesn't work, nor is there any reason for it to work. (Yes, I tried it.) I tried two DVDs with the same calibration problem. I put in a third and it worked. It was that simple. The problem, IMO, is the quality control for burnable DVDs and CDs is shite.

Look through any of the posts and you'll see references to CD and DVD "coasters". There's a reason the term is so popular: It's accurate. I'm guessing there are imperfections in the media that cause the sensitive laser to not be able to get a firm "fix" on what it needs to do to make the burn "catch." (Yeah, I know. Sorry about the technical terms *grin*).

Regardless, you're going to go through a handful or CDs/DVDs before it works. You can try a different burner on a different machine and might have more luck, but $10 says if it does, it's a burner from a different manufacturer, hence a different the laser with different tolerance levels.

[dimis]

Same here. It obviously does not work, since there is no reason for it to work. As of the reply by Apple, what did that guy expect. He just contacted Apple stating his "fix" to his problem; and they say "oh well, it might be associated ..." (yes, but in a parallel universe :p). I mean "mercy!" This reminds me of an era back in windoze when people could say "don't open that app while I am dialing to connect to the internet because the line might drop... or the colors will go grey ... or *place another bunch of incoherence here and you have a valid win-statement of the 90s* (some guys still say similar things lol). I don't mean to be rude, but it is outrageous that some people insist on "switching languages" is "the catch" ...

Anyway, my macbook pro is not even a year old so I am really pissed.
Regarding my drive:
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E:

Firmware Revision: ZA0E
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds
By the way, wtf is MATSHITA? I had never heard of the manufacturer before. I don't get it why it was chosen by Apple (apart from the obvious financial reason which also comes with so many dangers) ...
The only time that I though this so called "fix" was actually able to work was because in the final command of the "script" you have to restart your computer and therefore on a fresh boot you might have much more swap available if you are running very low on your hard drive (like I do atm - about 3GB free after the restart). Alas, it turned out *not* to work even when I attempted to write just 200MB instead. :( So, this idea is probably wrong again ( I tested only 2 dvds )

The dvds used (tested about 10 (8 randomly selected) of the 50 pack ==> my $s for that 50-pack go directly to a trash can...) were Sony DVD+R.

Atm, I purchased a lens cleaner from amazon as well as some verbatim dvd-r (this time minus since they are supposed to be more all-around) and I am waiting for them to be delivered. As soon as I try them out I'll report again but I don't expect much...

Oh, and as of the OS, when I bought my pro it came with tiger and now I am running leopard 10.5.2 all updates installed as of today. In details:
System Software Overview:

System Version: Mac OS X 10.5.2 (9C7010)
Kernel Version: Darwin 9.2.2
Boot Volume: Macintosh HD
Boot Mode: Normal
Computer Name: my machine's name
User Name: my Full name (dimis)
Time since boot: 1:39

[ubrgeek]

I'm curious if the cleaner works. In theory (well, the theory we're talking about) it should make a difference if the quality of the media isn't that far off from the approved spec and the laser is slightly off as well. Pls post what you find.

There's what looks like a decent set of reviews for the various media types here: http://www.cdfreaks.com/media/ Can't vouch for it, but it looks promising.

And as an FYI MATSHITA = Panasonic. (It was three separate companies but then pulled each of the brands together.)

[Las_Vegas]

If your Macbook is "not even a year old" then it's covered under warranty. Call Apple and arrange for a warranty repair.

[dimis]

If your Macbook is "not even a year old" then it's covered under warranty. Call Apple and arrange for a warranty repair.

Eventually I will have to do that if I don't get around the problem in one way or another. But that's the only computer I have atm, and if they want to keep it for some days, then I don't know if I am willing to give it to them. :-)

And by the way, since last August (that's when I bought the macbook) I burnt no more than 15-20 cds and no more than 10-15 dvds... (all same brand - sony) I am just stating that because I read somewhere (probably in this forum) that latest dvd-recorders are not meant to last as long as the old ones, since the material is cheaper (plastic) and writing at maximum speed accelerates their death. But the quantities can not justify even that...

[Las_Vegas]

I don't know where you read that about drives. I can only report based on my own experiences. I've been burning discs in fairly large quantities since CD-R's came out. Drives fail no quicker today than they ever did. With the quantity of burning that I do, I expect to replace my drive in my desktop about once a year and always have.

Notebook drives are actually built more rugged than desktop drives because of the environmental factors they have to work under and the space the hardware has to fit into. I've only had one notebook drive ever fail on me and another on a client's machine. Of course, I don't do a lot of burning from the notebook.

[Nubbin51]

Anyone ever try repairing disk permissions?

[dimis]

I don't know where you read that about drives. I can only report based on my own experiences. I've been burning discs in fairly large quantities since CD-R's came out. Drives fail no quicker today than they ever did. With the quantity of burning that I do, I expect to replace my drive in my desktop about once a year and always have. I agree with you and I burn cds since 98. I haven't noticed a difference on failures on drives just like you say, and I used to burn a lot on my desktop. Although I used to replace regular cd drives on a yearly basis and recorders once every 2 years. I just mentioned sth that I read without too much thought and it might as well be nonsense. :-)

As of the numbers that I state above, I hope that you do agree that it is rather conservative on a yearly basis, don't you? If you add them up I didn't burn more than 50 since August; and I am sure this is an over-estimate.

[Las_Vegas]

It could simply be that you ended up with a drive that didn't hold up as it should have. That's why we have warranties.

[dimis]

Verbatim arrived but still no luck ... I am now waiting for the cleaner in case it helps but I guess I need a new drive.

[.will]

How strange that this fix should provoke such hostility. I can confirm that it works for me, provided (as another poster has mentioned) that the language is set to US English and not to English. Afterwards the disk (a DL DVD+R in my case) verifies and mounts.

It does seem like a crazy fix, but any programmer will tell you that it's probably just a notification bug. I expect laser calibration is the first interaction with the drive, so some initialisation routines are triggered. When they fail, an exception is thrown by the calibration routine instead of the failing subsystem.

The fact that international settings eliminate the problem tell us us that it's probably something to do with region settings or some other pernicious rights-limitation routine that is invoked on DVD burn. I wonder if the bug has affected anyone whose computer is set to US English by default?

I am very curious as to how landrick manage to find and isolate the fix, though...

[Sumleilmus]

I have stacks less tall than me of two different appearing DVD+R DL media. One says Ritek at the hub and is plain white, and the other is flat silver Memorex with shiny checks (not Czechs). Each has the same media code (RITEK…S04B) when examined with DVD Media Inspector.app.

Using either a Sony or a Philips FW external burner connected to a G5 iMac 1800GHz, the silver ones often return the laser power calibration error, but the white ones burn at close to a 100% success rate.

I can't wait to try landrick's voodoo or not voodoo detailed again below.

I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer


And Las Vegas, I have compostable thumbs.

[ThreeDee]

I've been on this forum for a while, and didn't noticed this thread before!

I'm having the same problem with my External Firewire Plextor PX-740UF DVD burner.

Maybe I'll try the language changing trick and see what happens.

[Mikey-San]

How strange that this fix should provoke such hostility. I can confirm that it works for me, provided (as another poster has mentioned) that the language is set to US English and not to English. Afterwards the disk (a DL DVD+R in my case) verifies and mounts.

It does seem like a crazy fix, but any programmer will tell you that it's probably just a notification bug. I expect laser calibration is the first interaction with the drive, so some initialisation routines are triggered. When they fail, an exception is thrown by the calibration routine instead of the failing subsystem.

The fact that international settings eliminate the problem tell us us that it's probably something to do with region settings or some other pernicious rights-limitation routine that is invoked on DVD burn. I wonder if the bug has affected anyone whose computer is set to US English by default?

I am very curious as to how landrick manage to find and isolate the fix, though...

No, any programmer would probably tell you that you're pulling enough assumptions out of the air to last a lifetime, and that assumptions are evil.

That same programmer would then point out how absolutely random the results of the procedure are and then point out how everyone is restarting at the end. He'd also emphasize how often it doesn't do anything at all.

[Sumleilmus]

Landrick's voodoo did not work. I made another coaster labeled Memorex.

Another thread in these forums recommends using a DVD/CD laser lens cleaning disk. I bought one and used it, and made another coaster labeled Memorex before I tried landrick's voodoo.

So, ebay or craig's list here I come, to make someone who can burn these a good deal.

I would not call myself an expert, but I have several DVD burners and I've been burning DVDs for several years. These media are uniquely truculent and merit harsh rebuke.

[johngpt]

These media are uniquely truculent and merit harsh rebuke.
This brought a huge smile to my face.

[dimis]

Ok. Since my warranty was still effective, I visited the local "genius bar" and as soon as the people saw all the error messages, they simply said: "Do you have applecare?" :) And that was it. I left my pro there on May 28th, and after 3 days I got it back and working. Now I can burn cds/dvds again. Simple as that.
I guess the fact that I had tested two different brands also mattered. Just check how many error reports you have in your DiscRecording.log under Applications/Utilities/Console.app. For example I had lots of error messages like the following ones:
Finder: Burn started, Thu May 15 01:11:00 2008
Finder: Burning to DVD+R (SONY D21) media with DAO strategy in MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E ZA0E via ATAPI.
Finder: Requested burn speed was 47x, actual burn speed is 8x.
Finder: Burn failed, Thu May 15 01:11:25 2008
Finder: Burn sense: 3/73/03 Medium Error, Power calibration area error
Finder: Burn error: 0x8002006D The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media.
Finder: Burn started, Fri May 16 15:26:52 2008
Finder: Burning to DVD-R (MCC 03RG20) media with DAO strategy in MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E ZA0E via ATAPI.
Finder: Requested burn speed was 47x, actual burn speed is 8x.
Finder: Burn underrun protection is supported, and enabled.
Finder: Write (10), block: 0, count: 64 -> 3/73/03 Medium Error, Power calibration area error
Finder: Burn failed, Fri May 16 15:28:16 2008
Finder: Burn sense: 3/73/03 Medium Error, Power calibration area error
Finder: Burn error: 0x8002006D The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media.

In fact, they didn't even try to burn a dvd ... ;)
Yeah, go change the language settings, open a window (fresh air), and don't forget to turn on the lights even if it's broad daylight. This is the recipe for optimum efficiency. :p

cheers

[johngpt]

LOL.

Okay, so what was done to your machine at the shop to now make it right?

[dimis]

The obvious. I had the drive replaced by a brand new one.

[ThreeBKK]

The obvious. I had the drive replaced by a brand new one.

It wasn't entirely obvious. I was about to post the same question that johngpt asked.

Next question: Is the new SuperDrive the same model and brand as the previous one?

[PhilFaber]

How frustrating! This fix really did work for me originally. But not any more! Has anyone managed to figure out WHY the fix works (for some, anyway)? If we can work out WHY it works we can figure out how to make it ALWAYS work. There must be some other setting that needs to be set at the same time as playing with the Language settings.

Good grief!

The fix really does work!

Interesting point though for any of those of you who didn't get it to work...

When selecting the languages, it seems you MUST choose "US English" (as per the example) and not just "English". There's something about the US version which makes it work. I initially just selected "English" (as I'm not in the USA) and did the 'dragging' bit and it failed.

Hope that helps someone.

Whatever next? Fixing disc problems by changing the screen saver?

[peanutboy]

Hello all,

I am another among the many to register strictly because of this thread. (You might say that it is relevant to my interests.) after setting up 2 partitions on a separate internal HD and installing windows on one of them I was having the same problem as everyone here.
the region thing DID NOT work for me, though I tried it. as crazy as this sounds here is what I did.

1. tried the language/region thing
2. tried a dvd/cd cleaner disc still the same error
3. got pissed off
4. ???????????
5. said "Ok F**k" it and put in a DVD movie to see if it would play. it did.
6. said "Ok F**k" again and tried burning the same iso that I had been trying to burn for several hours.
7. It worked.(profit)

what the hell.

solutions like this voodoo make me close to furious.
I don't like solutions that include watching part of fight club to solve the problem.

if anyone has any idea what might have been the gateway to the solution in my string of events, I would be interested.


love,

peanutboy

[PhilFaber]

Hello all,

I am another among the many to register strictly because of this thread.

Ok. Well, I'm burning successfully again. All I can do is say WHAT I did to achieve it this time. Last time the Language thingy worked. Then it didn't. I've been trying again all evening.

Finally I logged off and logged back on as System Administrator (you may need to have to 'Enable Root User' before you can do this). Note this is the root account - you can log in as user 'root' - and not just any account with administrator privileges. I immediately tried burning and it worked. (In fact it's 85% through so far...)

Can't say WHY it might have worked. Possibly because it's got different user settings. Possibly because the root account just allows more things. Who knows?

All I know is it works NOW. Might not work tomorrow. Who can say?

Bring back the good ol' days of computing! When it either worked or it didn't! Every time!

[fracai]

I suppose I'll add my incredulous account to the fire.

I just tried to burn a Memorex DVD+R DL 8x at 2.4x.
The first attempt failed with Disk Utility via the built in SuperDrive (the laser sense error).
The second attempt failed with Toast via the built in SuperDrive (some series of arcane hex code errors).
The third attempt failed with Disk Utility via an external LaCie writer (laser sense).
I then tried the "fix" of swapping the languages around (why not). But, I realized I had just started a download so I skipped rebooting and went right to the burn.
It's burning via Disk Utility in the SuperDrive.

W ... T ... F

Now there are all manner of uncontrolled variables which may have lead to this success:
Perhaps changing the language clears some cache file.
Perhaps after 3 burn attempts the drive was warmed up.
Perhaps after 3 burn attempts the disc itself was warmed up.
Perhaps changing the language really does have an effect (I'll note that I originally had English selected and added US English above it, I also originally had Standard selected for Word Break).

This is about as voodoo of Mac troubleshooting I've ever seen. I just can't let myself fall to "post hoc, ergo prompter hoc" here. Maybe this is one of the few remaining Easter Eggs in Leopard? Performing the above actions invokes a special kind of magic only Steve Wozniak could control.

Just to be sure I'm going outside to bury my iPod upside down in front of my door. Hopefully that will keep me safe.

[ThreeBKK]

Maybe the root of the problem isn't the software/firmware/OS, maybe it's related to physical conditions such as temperature/humidity/barometric pressure. Condensation on either the lens, or on the disc, might be preventing the necessary calibration. That would be a much more reasonable explanation for the erratic nature of the problem.

[JDV]

I realize this is a dangerous thing to post, but quite honestly I haven't heard of PCs experiencing this sort of problem. I use both Macs and PCs, so I keep up on both platforms, and nothing resembling this is reported even under the reviled Vista (which has been a pretty major flop for Microsoft, despite not being QUITE as bad as some have reported). There is something going on with the Mac OS and the driver support for DVD burners, it would seem, though just -what- this is is by no means clear. I'm surprised that Apple hasn't had more to say about this. It is obviously a problem, though it may not be consistent enough to count as a bug. But just look at the length of this thread! A lot of people in the Mac world are having this problem, one would have to think. It would be particularly interesting if we could see if there is any consistency in the version of the OS which could be a factor....I don't know how to begin to do that, however. But if the cause were variable media, environmental differences, or such, one would expect the same failure rate among all of the burners in use, and this really does seem to be largely a Mac problem--unless someone has evidence to the contrary that I haven't seen?

Joe VanZandt

[fracai]

It's possible that the problem is that Apple is more demanding of the drive. Remember a few years ago when an Apple update rendered a bunch of RAM unusable? The issue was that Apple was now applying more stringent guidelines towards testing the RAM before enabling it and "lesser quality" RAM, though still valid, was disabled.

It's possible that other systems are more lenient when sensing the laser calibration. I think this would lend credence to an environmental cause.

Like the RAM issue, it's debatable as to whether this is the desired behavior or not. I will say it's not acceptable given the use of Apple supplied hardware. Though I tend to think this is more likely a media issue as I haven't had problems until I tried to burn a Memorex disc of unknown supplier, where typically I order unbranded Taiyo Yuden. I'll have to give it another go if I even buy more DL discs. They're'nt ( :) ) really worth the price unless the capacity is absolutely required.

[MrngNeom]

I'm burning an iso of Xubuntu. Using disk utility (although Toast also displays a burn error), and its the same one about the laser. I tried burning to a CD (maxell) then a DVD (Playo). Neither worked, same error.

I tried the International thing twice and same message. Repeated the international thing again and it didn't work again. Restarted again and zapped the PRAM.

Next thing I did was use my mouth to blow to blow into the slot drive on my Mac Book Pro (yea, I know its dumb, but I was really angry and it seemed better than breaking it in half). Entered the maxell CDR again and it still didn't work. I picked a CDR off the bottom of the stack and put it in and it worked like a charm. My vote goes to media problems.

MacBook Pro Intel Core Duo 2.16
OS 10.4.11

Drive info:
MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857:

Model: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857
Revision: HAEA
Serial Number:
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
Low Power Polling: Yes

[PfionaBW]

I have a macbook duo core with the same problem.

MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857E:

Model: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857E
Revision: ZB0E
Serial Number:
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
Low Power Polling: Yes

I read through this forum and here is my result:

I tried rebooting - still got the error
I tried messing with the languages as posted earlier - still got the error
I turned my macbook upside-down while open and sprayed canned air across the DVD opening and put in a different dvd disc and then it worked.
Then I tried again, using a dvd disc that I had gotten the error message on, and it didn't work.
Then I blew more air into the dvd drive and put my laptop on top of my laptop cooler and used a new dvd disc and it worked.

So? Dirty? Hot? Bad DVD disk? That's all I got.

[dimis]

It wasn't entirely obvious. I was about to post the same question that johngpt asked.

Next question: Is the new SuperDrive the same model and brand as the previous one?
Yes. The new SuperDrive is the same model and brand as the previous one.
Just as a friendly reminder to the other guys above: check the error logs you have as I describe in the previous page. This, most likely, will suffice so that they can change your drive in an apple-store.

[xvimbi]

I just stumbled upon this thread, because I had the same error message. I was using Memorex DVD-R media, and they all failed. I tried the voodoo thingy, and it didn't work. I finally tried a DVD+RW from another brand (I don't even know what brand it is, because it is not stamped on the disk). It works fine now. It looks to me as if it is a media problem, perhaps combined with the laser getting weaker over time. In any case, I would urge people to first check out their media. Best - MM

[AussieDee]

Does anyone think that it could have anything to do with Leopard? I've read elsewhere that alot of these problems have arised since the upgrade. Thoughts?

Regardless... I'm stumped. I've tried everything but sing to it!

I still get the error "The burn to the MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857 drive failed. The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media."

[crutex]

I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...

Hi guys. My girlfriend's laptop was having this laser power level warning and I found this thread on the problem. I just did this process and it worked... I don't even care why, just adding another confirmed success.

[crutex]

Does anyone think that it could have anything to do with Leopard? I've read elsewhere that alot of these problems have arised since the upgrade. Thoughts?

Regardless... I'm stumped. I've tried everything but sing to it!

I still get the error "The burn to the MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857 drive failed. The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media."

I have tiger and had this error. In fact I was burning a Leopard disk though :D

[sndp]

I arrived via google (search term "device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media")

The drive is OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5630A in a 24" aluminum iMac running 10.5.3.

I have had problems burning discs since early on so I've been using Burn.app without a problem.

Today I tried burning through Finder, it failed with the above error so I googled and arrived here.

Even before reading the replies here I was already a skeptic. This must be a case of a random string of things making one small change that goes unnoticed. Anyone who's hacked around with computers long enough knows there's no magic wands.

I can confirm a few things to try and get to the bottom of this.

-A reboot alone after the error does not fix it.
-The error persists even when cleanly formatted (with OEM 10.5 DVDs)
-The workaround did allow me to burn. I did nothing extra between going through the motions listed in the fix and attempting another burn.

The OP of the fix seems to have gotten this info from a mac tech in the know. Has anyone gotten any other info from a tech about why this would work?

If this truly is a case of the drive's beginning to fail I'm sure there are plenty of folks who would like to know about it.

It's within a year of purchasing so on Monday I'm planning on calling in and seeing if it qualifies for a repair (even though the problem no longer exists).

I also plan on formatting back to 10.5 and running some tests (such as, how consistently does this fix work, and does it last beyond a format, among others).

I will post back with any info I can get.

[Blood Stache]

I read up to page two on this thread and i had not heard of anyone having any problems with the random language fix. Anyhow, it did not work for me BUT i was trying to burn a cd with Imitation CD-R's... I used about half of a stack of 30 before my computer decided to stop burning. I switched to a Memorex CD-R and the problem was solved.If anyone has had a problem with there drive not being able to calibrate enough power to burn i would suggest trying a different CD-R if the language trick does not solve anything.

Like i said i only read up to 2 pages on this thread so i am unsure if this issue has been addressed. Thanks for your help.

[keymaster]

I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...

Landrick, thanks for this fix. It works for me. Just burnt the first data DVD onto TDK DVD-R. I have a Optiarc AD-5630A with firmware: 1AHN
Cheers

[ThreeBKK]

Landrick, thanks for this fix. It works for me. Just burnt the first data DVD onto TDK DVD-R. I have a Optiarc AD-5630A with firmware: 1AHN
Cheers

I take it that's an external burner.

Does reverting the settings back to what they were cause you to lose burning capability?

[xerenthar]

Completely and totally bizarre, but this fixed my problem. I was unable to burn in Toast, Disk Utility, Nero(Parallels or VMWare) all with MEDIUM ERROR(toast) or Laser Calibration errors(other 2.)

I did this and it burned in Toast flawlessly. I did NOTHING else (other than the restart prescribed in the fix.)

I have an Optiarc DVD RW AD-5630A and I bought this iMac less than a week ago New. :)

[seanster55]

Dual 2.5, running OS 10.5.1

My Disc is Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-117D

I'm using (and have been for about 8 months) crappy Staples media, 100 to a spindle DVD-R.

Macs don't care.. right?

I have used the "burn from a disc image" method for over 2 years, and taught others how to build a disc image to do so.

Under 10.4. It worked to a T. Everytime. 20 discs, no problem.

I've only recently upgraded to 10.5 (4 or so months)

I don't think I've burned a disc since then. I tried one tonight. I got this stupid (new, to my recollection) error.

Disc started.
Disc finishing.

Failed to calibrate laser level.

I typed into Google "Failed to calibrate laser level" and came upon this thread.

I looked at the "voodoo magic" and thought.. "that's so dumb, no way"

So I did it.

Works like a champ!!

I think the problem lies in the upgrade.

For example. I have DVD Studio 3 (2 years old, before Final Cut Studio)

It worked great under 10.4 .

10.5... Starts up.. Freezes on Title screen. Doesn't go past that.

So I would theorize that it's an unadressed issue in the upgrade.

With luck, maybe it'll fix my Studio Pro too????

Also, yes. I have to rerun the "magic fix" everytime.

But yes, as is the message in the Sys Pref's. "Changes upon Logout"

You don't have to restart.. Thanks for that posting btw.

If anyone finds a permanant fix on this, or hears from apple,

please post..

Thanks for all your help.

[johngpt]

seanster55, if I remember from way back at the beginning of this thread, the original problem and fix had surfaced during 10.4.11.

Does reverting the settings back to what they were cause you to lose burning capability?

Excellent question, has anyone recently tried this?

[ehb007]

I have to agree with previous suggestions that overheating is at least one cause of the "failure to calibrate laser" error.
Just wanted to share my experience from today:
Burned one Data CD.
Burned one dual-layer DVD.
Failed to burn a second dual-layer DVD (different .dmg file) 5 times in a row - got the laser calibration error each time.
Downloaded smcFanControl from VersionTracker.com and used it to max out both fans on my MacBook Pro until temp dropped from 53 C to 43 C.
Failed to burn a dual-layer DVD a few more times.
Unplugged the mag-safe charger in case battery heat was slowing down the cooling (probably irrelevant).
Finally succeeded in burning dual-layer DVD once temperature was stable at 35 C for about 10 minutes and case was cool to the touch top and bottom. Left the fans running at max for the duration of the burn.

Other Tidbits:
I have not fiddled with my language settings at all.
Running 10.5.4

I read somewhere that manual fan controls void warranties (so be careful if you try it), but if cranking the fans works for others, perhaps Apple can patch the SuperDrive drivers to cool off some models before the burn starts...

FYI, I posted most of this on Apple's forum as well before finding the macosxhints thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7756162

I don't burn many discs but if I have to resort to the fan thing a couple more times, I'll be taking the book back to Apple for a drive swap under warranty.

[johngpt]

Lifting the notebook, blowing compressed air. The compressed air, as well as possibly blowing schmutz off the lens, also cools the innards. Running the fans harder.

All these sorts of fixes have heat in common.

Makes one wonder if the voodoo fix of language settings can possibly have an effect on how heat is recognized/interpreted? I, in my infinite ignorance, can't think of a way it could, but perhaps someone else can?

[cocotu]

i'm amazed by the response to this thread. i haven't being in here for many months. bad news is i'm still having the issue. i'm able to burn CD-R, but not DVD-R. the DVD-R gets ejected with no error messages. i tried that "I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix works"....thanks

[rebecca_kostya]

Well, I have been following this thread for the last 6 months, since I changed around my international language settings and was able to burn discs again, and Im pleased to report that I still haven't had any recurring issues. This may also have something to do with the burned offerings I set out in front of my imac each night. Seems to make about as much sense if you ask me. Knowing that each disc I burn could be my last keeps me at the end of my seat, but the instant it acts up again, Ive decided to make my first call to AppleCare and will likely replace the drive to be safe. (Im pleased to report it'll be my first call because all of you on macosxhints have been so incredibly helpful. THANK YOU!)

[ThreeBKK]

Here's another vote (http://blog.garysmith.org.uk/index.php/blog/show/Matshita-DVD-R-UJ-857E-problems---dirty-laser.html) for cleaning the lens as a fix. I found this on an unrelated blog.

[kslim]

I'm having the same problem. Language thing didn't work for me. Tried a cleaner disc (4x), didn't help. Was using the same media for some time before the problem developed.

Is there any consensus as to which brand(s) of DVDs have a lower incidence of the problem?

Interstingly (to me at least), the problem first came up about a year ago, then mysteriously cleared up, and now has come back.

In going through this thread, it appears the problem occurs with different brands of drives and different media. It also doesn't appear to be a problem in the Windows world. All that indicates to me that OSX is the most likely culprit. Too bad Apple support is so poor.

Looking forward to reading future posts on the thread

2 Ghz Intel Core Duo
OSX 10.5.4
2 GB SDRAM
Matshita DVD-R UJ-846
Maxell DVD+RW, Memorex DVD-RW

[ThreeBKK]

It also doesn't appear to be a problem in the Windows world. All that indicates to me that OSX is the most likely culprit. Too bad Apple support is so poor.

It might be possible to prove/disprove your own theory by booting into Windows and trying to burn the disc from there.

[dinspring]

wow, this is an interesting thread...
I found it because i was having the same laser calibration error as most here.
This started happening to me after I upgraded to OS10.5, although it's possible i bought the new blank discs at that time too, I'm using a;

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Power Mac G5
Model Identifier: PowerMac7,3
Processor Name: PowerPC G5 (2.2)
Processor Speed: 1.8 GHz
Number Of CPUs: 2
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 3 GB
Bus Speed: 900 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.1.8f7
Serial Number: G8442FX4QPL

with a;

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-117D:

Firmware Revision: B705
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 0 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds

and currently cheap dynex DVD+R discs (should I have bought DVD-R????).

I tried the voodoo fix and it restarted and it actually got a lot further into the burn process but then failed verification and I can't read the 'finished' disc.

got to say, this doesn't feel like a hardware issue if so many people are just recently having it with so many different types of mac and media. anyone else suspect OS 10.5?

[dinspring]

i picked up some memorex DVD-R and the problem has gone..

[greeniep]

I am a new poster... and I tried the foreign language trick, and it didn't work for me.

I am having burning issues. I thought it was the pack of DVD's I bought, because I am not sure the difference between -/+ R, so I bought a new pack of DVD - R's. And the first DVD out of the pack burned fine. But the second one gave me the same message:

the disk can't be burned because the device failed to calibrate the laser poser for this media.

So I am stuck again. I just thought you should know because of the suspicion to the mysterious new posters all swearing by the foreign language trick. It didn't work but so far no new problems with my computer. So I don't think it is malicious.

[ChristoAcosta]

This will probably apply to very few of you, however...

I noted that on the first page, someone mentioned the drive perhaps not being able to determine the correct region. I often change my ODD's region, and usually leave it on [not-set] instead of Region 1 (US). I got the same error, and was a bit puzzled, until I opened Region X, and set the DVD drive to Region 1. It is now burning a DVD beautifully with no reboots, etc....

Like I said, it probably will not apply to the many of you who do not swap regions a lot...

FYI, specs:
Black MacBook 2.16 - 10.5.4 - 4Gb RAM - Matshita UJ-857E (vZB0E)

[emmie13]

I, too, have experienced this error when attempting to burn CDs (in iTunes). I have a Sony DVD RW DW-U10A (a model which died in a PC of mine, as well, for what that's worth). Just tried this fix and it seems to work: in the Advanced Settings in Preferences, under Preferred Speed I chose "Maximum Possible". When I chose the speed myself, the CD would never burn, but when it chose the speed it worked. Hope this works for someone.

[reesmaxwell]

This is just crazy. I would love to find an explanation as to why this fix works.

I tried to burn a DMG to a Memorex DVD+R DL ... and I got the following after a long preburn/burn: "The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media."

I found landrick's crazy solution, completed it and rebooted, and now the DMG burns correctly!

This just makes no sense ... I'm curious as to what made landrick go through those steps? What caused landrick to think that would make any difference, and who at Apple can answer why this fixes the issue?

[mattjgalloway]

So so random, but I too tried the random fix of the "The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media." problem by going into international settings. I had failed disks lots of times, then tried the fix (but without restarting at the end) and then the next time I tried the disk, it worked perfectly.

Random. Would like to know why this works though...

[wittyusername]

I'm using a Powermac G5, I think it's still the original G5 with Dual 2.2

By the end of my Apple Care I had my Hard Drive replaced, as well as my Logic Board. (I had some weird crashing problem and after 4 trips they finally replaced the logic board).

I had this laser error probably about 4-6 months ago or so. I was nearly out the door to buy an external burner (I figured after so long the burner was probably just bad). My archaic solution then was to run as many different DVDs and CDs in the drive to keep it 'awake' and then quickly burn (this was ridiculous and quite difficult as I'm burning out of DVD Studio Pro and after the muxing time, the drive pretty much had died down anyways). It worked. Eventually.

After that I didn't have any problems. Until today. I searched on Google, and found this thread.

I tried the language trick, but to no avail. Again I was almost out the door to run to MicroCenter to get an external burner. I have 2 spindles from which I burn from. One is Maxell DVD-R, and one is Memorex Printable DVD-R. I had been trying to burn onto the Maxell, and then I tried the Memorex, and it worked no problem.

I used to use Verbatim and I never had a problem. But it looks like I'll have to continue buying Memorex from now on.

[saskmacdude]

I've never had a problem burning a DVD on my 20" Intel iMac before this morning. Burn failed after about a minute, with the aforesaid error. Did a quick google search, found this thread, did EXACTLY what it said (and ONLY that) then came back to Disk Utility after a restart and started burning the same .cdr DVD image. Same media, same image, JUST ran through the steps in the hint. I'm now half way through my burn.

Thanks all!

[cocotu]

so everyone agrees on the solution? Change International Settings fix?? yes/no?

[ThreeBKK]

I'd say that, so far, it looks like coincidence that some users were able to successfully burn their image to disc after trying this "hint". It probably has more to do with the process of rebooting the Mac and/or internal temps changing. You'd probably see just as many people successful if they had just shut down, waited several minutes, then rebooted and immediately tried burning. Add to the recipe, trying discs from different manufacturers, or production runs, and you've got a good catch-all for getting your burn session to complete successfully.

[JDV]

I don't know, ThreeBKK. This seems to me to be too often for coincidence. But I do agree that it isn't very clear why it seems to work in some instances and not in others, so perhaps your conjecture is correct. What I wonder is why this error condition and associated message is so common and yet I have yet to see any official comment on it. Perhaps the message is used for many different conditions (kind a generic failure message), but if that's so, it's unfortunate for it doesn't help one figure out the true nature of the problem. This is a remarkably long and inconsistent series of posts. I'd sure like someone to say something definitive about this issue.

Joe VanZandt

[jjsterner]

I tried that voodoo trick to no avail. I'm attempting to make a backup of my leopard install disk which has it's own tricks to it. I used a terminal command to make the leopard.iso (dd if=/dev/disk1 of=leopard.iso) that I found on another site and attempted to burn with disk utility. Anyhow, I'm on a MBP that's just a year old now and the same matshita dvd-r uj-857e that many are using here. I'm also using the memorex dvd+r dl that other's have had troubles with. After much frustration and many restarts and failed burns, I attached an external NEC drive (nec dvd rw nd-3550a) that's attached via firewire 400 and got it on the first try. Also, I used the same dvd's that were failing in the superdrive (mat****a) to make two in a row. It's odd, but I'd say the superdrive and memorex +r dual layer disks just don't like each other.

-J

[ThreeBKK]

jjsterner:

That's an interesting story, thanks for relaying it!
Did you, at any point, try to use different media, other than Memorex, in the SuperDrive?

[egself]

tried the language thing, still doesnt work for me, trying to burn dvds in iphoto...

[jjsterner]

jjsterner:

That's an interesting story, thanks for relaying it!
Did you, at any point, try to use different media, other than Memorex, in the SuperDrive?

No, I don't have any other media on hand to try. I do have access to a MacBook with a superdrive and may also try the Memorex media in that drive to see what happens.

[esbandido1]

I tried the language thing and I am still getting this error message. I'm trying to burn Memorex DVD+R DL with a MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E inside a MacBook Pro...

[esbandido1]

Tried a Verbatim brand DVD+R DL once I got home from work and everything worked fine.

Felt some relief that it's hopefully a problem specific to the media and won't require a trip into the repair center.

[Shroombaker]

I tried the language thing and I am still getting this error message. I'm trying to burn Memorex DVD+R DL with a MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E inside a MacBook Pro...
I have the exact same media, harddrive, and computer. The language trick did not work for me over many attempts. I will try different media next... :eek:

[Shroombaker]

I have the exact same media, harddrive, and computer. The language trick did not work for me over many attempts. I will try different media next... :eek:

Well, there's probably a reason why the Memorex DVD+R DL didn't work -- they were discounted off 50% at Office Max, whereas the Verbatim DVDs were a steep $39.99 for a 20 pack. I wasn't about to test the media comparison theory over that cost. Grr...

[Shroombaker]

Well, there's probably a reason why the Memorex DVD+R DL didn't work -- they were discounted off 50% at Office Max, whereas the Verbatim DVDs were a steep $39.99 for a 20 pack. I wasn't about to test the media comparison theory over that cost. Grr...

Note: Burning DVD-Rs work just dandy. It's a problem with the dual layer media.

[FYFUR]

I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...


Thanks for the advice... it worked for me as well

[FYFUR]

The "System Prefs" worked for me as well. (17in MacBook Pro)
Thanks for the advice landrick

[vincidahk]

Would like to say that the weird method allow me to burn the disc 1/2 way more, then the same problem happened again.

So any fixes on this? Might just call apple to see what they can give me~

[macbookNH]

Hi,

Many times of trying all sorts of fixes for my CD-R. I even bought a new external CDR. Still got the calibrating laser issue.
I know this is a bit of an elitist forum in that the "experts" hate us newbies when things "just work" but this language change fix got me burning and rolling again with no issue. I specifically did nothing else except the language fix and I took the time to register here to help others out like me.

A word of advice to the experts, sometimes things just work guys. Whether you want to believe it or not Macs are far from an exact science.

Take care everyone!

[big2cat]

Okay, I tried that fix with great hopes...stranger things have happened. But I will be honest, my Mac stopped burning DVDs after I made a "backup" of a video I owned. The video even had the warning that attempting to copy the DVD might harm by DVD writer. I didn't believe it because I had made a "backup" on my iMac and it worked just fine.

I really am making a backup--I just want one copy in case something happens to mine. But anyhow, after making the .cdr file and attempting to burn the copy, I got that message. Could copying a disk really have ruined my writer?

Is there a fix? Has anyone found the solution that isn't some crazy fix?

[ponyboy]

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to add that I went through seven DVD+R DL coasters from two different vendors before I stumbled upon this via Google. I could burn CDs and DVDs fine, just not DVD+R DL anymore. It's been a few months since I'd tried using DL discs, but up until now they always worked for me. This was really bugging me. It was failing immediately as soon as it would start the actual writing track process.

I agree with the others that this might be somehow related to the region code.

My setup:
Mac OS X 10.5.5
Dual 2 GHz G5
Pioneer DVR-111D
Toast 8.03
Toast 9.02

[hayne]

In case anybody who is experiencing this problem wants to help find out more about what might be causing it, you could try running the filebyproc.d DTrace script (in a Terminal window) to find out which files are being written when you attempt to do the DVD burn that emits that error message, and when you do the strange procedure with the language preferences.

You'd do this by running a command like the following in a Terminal window before you start either of the above operations:

sudo filebyproc.d > ~/output_from_operation1.txt

Then try doing the DVD burn and after getting the error message, go back into that Terminal window and hold down the Control key and press the C key - this will stop the filebyproc.d script. Then you can use a text editor like TextWrangler (http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/) to look at the output file (it will likely be quite large) and see what files were accessed.

Then do it again (with a different output file name - e.g. use ~/output_from_operation2.txt) and do the language preferences trick. Again stop the script with Control-C and look at the output file to see what files were written by doing the trick.

Then do it a third time while attempting the DVD burn again. Look at the files that were accessed. Were any of the files that were written while doing the preferences trick also accessed when trying to do the DVD burn?

[seamusberkeley]

Just wanted to update about the strange fix reported by landrick - worked for me!

One other note about the oddity of the problem. I had burned one disc fine. After it was burned it did not show up in iTunes. In the Finder the CD did not appear as a disc, rather a disc image which could not be removed or ejected. A restart removed the phantom device; however, burning additional discs kept returning the reported problem.

Followed landrick's steps - discs are now burning!

I think this is not a hardware issue, software glitch somewhere. I'm wondering is the phantom CD was somehow retained and the software was addressing that instead of the actual disc.

[themente]

People,

I'm having the same issues you're saying here. My settings:

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-875:

Firmware Revision: DB09
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media:
Type: DVD+R DL
ID: RICOHJPN D01
Blank: No
Erasable: No
Overwritable: No
Appendable: Yes
Write Speeds: 2.4x, 4x

I had OS X installed as it came from factory. I had no problem so far, and I've wrote like 5 ricoh medias in a row without any trouble.

BUT, some behaviour I've observed:

1) When I insert a blank media, you can feel the driving spinning and the lens focusing the disc. After I start burning (a ,dmg image), it starts to verify the image, but, the power management (I suppose) spins off the disk. After it completes the checksums, it starts to spin up again, but fails with len calibration. I feel this drive and these lens from matsushita is the poorest avaiable in the market. Anyway, it ejects the media, I insert it again, then, no verification is done in the image, and it started to burn without any issue. Even the verification progress 100%.

2) After burning these 5 discs, I've reinstalled Mac OS X with the discs that came with my iMac, and applied all patches. Then, I continued to burn the backups I left in a second disk prior to reinstall. I had 6 fails in a row. 6 FAILS!!

3) I found this thread, and started to wonder what went wrong with that. I did two things: a) moved my primary images from my external USB drive (just wondering if the recorder and the external drive weren't eating all bandwidth altogether), and b) the non-sense language tweak.

4) With those 2 mods, I achieved:
a) The len calibration errors still persist. But skipping checksum makes it work. If you get this error, eject the disk, then burn it again, skipping image verification.
b) There weren't any errors in the middle of a burning
c) Errors persist in data verification (I guess the len calibration for burning in the secondary layer is not turned off, so it can't focus for reading purposes).
d) Ejecting it after burning, and reading a disk image in Disk Utility proved it is burning correctly (I've done that two more burns so far, then, more burns need to be performed before taking assumptions).


In my opinion, that's a terrible flaw within drive's firmware, so to speak, dealing with write/reading of dual layer medias. That would explain why recalibration of its lens fail after resuming from power save state.

[redux]

I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...

I haven't been able to burn for 6 months, and I've literally tried just about everything. I just registered to say thanks for this lifesaver, it worked great & volunteer that around the time my burner stopped working I had changed the region in order to play some foreign DVDs, and I recall having to change some setting somewhere to handle foreign character file & folder names.

If this works for anyone else, please briefly mention if you've played foreign DVDs or had foreign file name issues prior to the problem, I'm curious if there's some way this is related.

I'm using a MacBook Pro running 10.4.11

[marywait]

Doesn't work for my MacBook Pro. I did change my region some time ago to watch some UK DVDs. I don't remember "changing it back," but US DVDs play fine. I can burn CDs but not DVDs. Is there someway to check which region the DVD is set to?

[ThreeBKK]

Is there someway to check which region the DVD is set to?
While DVD Player is open and playing a movie, use Get Disc Info or Command + I.

[tcurj]

Just wanted to add more info to everything...I'm a video editor for a production company. We deal with large HD Quicktime files, which we back up on Sony DL DVD+R Discs.

I've never had a problem until now, and I'm getting the error of laser power. We ran out of Sony Discs, so I started using cheaper Memorex ones when the problem occurred. I would get the error, then I would wait a few minutes, try it again with a new blank DL DVD, and it would work. I did this all day yesterday, with discs sometimes burning, sometimes failing with that error. I did just try the voodoo fix (minus the restart), and the disc burned, however, I don't think that's what temporarily fixed it.

I think it's random. I'll include my specs below for comparison. But I think the problem has to do with either temperature, condensation (it's getting cold here), or some other change in barometric pressure that effects the laser in the drive. I've been measuring the barometric pressure in my editing suite and I've noticed this error occurs more when the pressure is dropping. Very odd I know.

I also know I run my computer straight for weeks sometimes (to render animation), and it still burns discs fine after (or it did until yesterday I guess). So I don't know if it's an internal temp problem. Anyways, just thought I'd comment. We're definitely switching back to Sony DL DVD+R's though. Hope someone finds out why this is happening, I'm curious!

OPTIARC DVD RW AD-7170A
Version 10.5.4
Mac Pro
Dual-Core Intel Xeon
2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
Running 16Gigs of RAM

[mcdalton]

My CD burning issues with the laser power level began after there was an update that had something to do with using your burner to share with an Air book.

[KaiserSanchez]

I think you're on to something there, mcdalton. I think my issues started since that MacBook Air CD/DVD Burner sharing support update. I've got a MacBook Pro 2.0 GHz Tiger 10.4.11 and had NO PROBLEM until I got that update. This voodoo fix does not work for me AT ALL btw. Help?? :confused:

[johngpt]

First post was late Aug 2007. The original poster mentioned a problem with his server.

Was the macbook air out at that time? Had the updates included something for it?

[magi182]

I have been dealing with this problem for quite a while -- at least a month and a half. The DVD burning problem appeared shortly after installing a software update.

After reinstalling the OS twice at the direction of Mac tech support, I took the machine into the Apple Store to have the drive replaced. After the drive replacement, I was able to successfully burn DVD and CD-R media -- we tested it in the store on both media.

Several days later, I popped in a commercially-produced DVD to watch, and was prompted to set the region code for the new drive. I set the region code for 1 - US.

A few hours later, I got the "The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media" error again while trying to archive some old client work. Despairing, I tried the voodoo fix. It fixed it, and I have been burning OK since.

OK Apple, it is extremely obvious that this is a software problem dealing with the region encoding, and likely the DRM software. I have spent too many hours of my personal time dealing with this. Toting up your bill Apple, you owe me $3700. And that's the discount rate for clients I like.

[sufrin]

I have much the same setup as <<tcurj>> and had no problems burning CDs or (single layer) DVDs from time to time over the last couple of years. Then the other day I tried to burn a (Verbatim) DVD-R and got the failed-to-calibrate report on 3 successive new blanks. The same discs burned apparently without problem on a MacMini two days later.

There are warnings out there about using dvd-player lens-cleaning materials on DVD writers in computers, so I'm reluctant to use one of those before seeing if I can clean the lens with compressed air. Is there an easy way of getting access to the lens on the drive in a Mac Pro?

[sterytyper]

Hey guys, i have the same problem. i have a PowerMac G4, with version 10.5.5 of leopard. i was burning a cd from itunes this morning, the message came up that all of you guys are having....so i kept lowering the burn rate from 20x, to 12x, to 2x....same thing happened...


so i went to software update and one update was Mac OsX update blahblahblah and that was about 300MB...so i said..ohh this might fix the problem! so i update it, restart the computer and it worked!...so i burned one right after and the problem came back...so i went back to software update and i didnt get to read all of it..but one of the items said "CD/DVD somethingsomething" so i thought that would fix it....same problem.

what do i do?!!??!!! should i buy a cd drive cleaner or what?

ps: i called apple support - they were useless and wasted 2 hours of my time.

[ron2you]

I have a 15" MBP running 10.5.5 with a MATSHITA optical drive that was giving me the calibration error. Sequence of frustrating steps:

1) Imported video from camcorder to iMovie, exported to iDVD, then tried to burn to DVD. Error...
2) Then, created files from iDVD and tried to burn them directly (select folder then hit burn under the file menu). Error...
3) Created disk image from iDVD and tried to burn image with disc utility. Error...
4) Copied files (from 2) to thumb drive over to 17" MBP using same media that was rejected on the 15". Burned DVD w/o problem!
5) Back on 15", tried the language preference suggestions. Error...
6) Reset the SMC. Error...
7) Reset PRAM and NVRAM. Error...
8) Took to Apple Store had them replace drive and now it works:

Model: HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N
Revision: AP09
Serial Number: K5588PG2723
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
Low Power Polling: Yes

One other strange observation, while having those errors MATSHITA drive would only allow up to 4x burn when it should burn at 8x. New drive worked at 8x...strangeness. -ron

[sufrin]

Curiouser and curiouser.

I managed to write and check a DVD-RW on the same device that failed to write a DVD-R. That DVD-RW now reads on other drives, but shows up as blank on the drive on which it was written; as do other DVD-RWs written elsewhere.

Reading the other posts leads me to believe that this may be a software (or firmware) problem: it affects people with different machines and different kinds of drive.

[binur]

I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...

Wow Landrick !! This fix worked for me.

I've created my profile in this forum just now only, that too just to appreciate Landrick for his findings. I was getting the error message just before applying this fix, and after applying this fix I was able to write on the same blank DVD (Sony DVD-R) that was rejected earlier.

To all you people who doesn't believe that a region fix on an Apple machine can affect DVD writing, please know that Apple implements Digital Rights Management (DRM) very strongly on all their softwares and hardwares, and some times a bug in that can cause strange issues like this. To be noted that "failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media" issue happens only for DVD writers (of any brand) on Apple machines.

I also have an iPhone 3G from Apple, on which earlier the applications use to crash if there are a lot of applications or sometimes for no reason after a Sync with iTunes in my MacBookPro. I thought that my iPhone was defective one. But later some genius came up with a solution to use an older version of iTunes (by cleaning the existing iTunes completely and resetting the iPhone) and syncing with that. That was like an impossible fix, but worked super. When investigated further, I understood that older version iTunes was having a weaker DRM and that's why Apple came up with a new version within a week time (by incrementing the version number from 7.7.0 to 7.7.1), by implementing strong DRM but in a crappy way, so that even if users may suffer a bit, the Digital Rights are PROTECTED. Now a days I never apply the iTunes update until I get good feedback from other iPhone users.

Coming back to this issue, it seems that there are 3 different issues that users are here with.

a) Issue with Region settings :- Cases where the user is not able to write on the DVDs of the same brand that he/she has tried successfully many times earlier. Also in this case the user should be able to read a DVD and read/write a CD (CD's and CD writers doesn't have region settings) on the drive.

b) Issues with DVD writer lens :- In most such cases, the DVD drive will not even accept any disk for reading, and on slot drives, the disks are expected to be ejected in 10 seconds.

c) Issues with DVD media :- If this is the case, we should be able to trace it down by trying with a different brand and different type (+R/-R) disk. This could be a possibility only if that drive has never been successful in writing on a DVD of that particular type or brand.

The fix from Landrick is only for case (a) above.

The details about my machine are as below:

Machine : MacBookPro 15"
OS : Mac OS 10.5.5 (Leopard)
Drive : MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857D
Firmware Revision : KCVB
Disk : Sony DVD-R
Location : India

[malhussaini]

After trying a bunch of different disc brands and letting the drive cool off and retrying using different programs to no avail.
Then I stumbled on this thread, did the international reorder thing and it worked. I suspect that it or something in the process triggers some kind of refresh.
It worked without a restart!

[adriantoll]

Another addition for feedback - tried the voodoo fix, nothing doing, then used a lens cleaner and it started burning first time.

[Scoobysnackster]

OK I had to sign up for an account just to report that this silly fix actually worked. I tried twice to burn a DVD+R DL disc. Twice I made a half burned coaster. I suspect the laser power calibration problem occurred when the burner started writing the second layer of the DVD. Both times I ended up with an incomplete and unmountable burn, but both times I could see that the DVD was burned almost to the outer edges of the media.

I was super skeptical about the language shuffle, but I had a fresh pack of 25 DVDs and thought wasting one more wouldn't kill me. I was gob smacked when it worked.

For the nay sayers, the system had just failed to write a DVD. I went to the international control panel and switched French to the top of the list and then switched English back to the top of the list. I then set "Word Break" to English (United States, Computer), as the instructions indicate. I logged out of the account, but did not restart the Mac. When I logged back in I went to Disk Utility and started burning my disk image. It wrote completely and verified successfully. Crazy!?

I've supported Macs for several years and never come across anything so obscure. I was a skeptic till it worked. The system was a Mac Pro Dual Core 2.66 GHz running 10.4.11. The drive is the SONY DVD RW DW-D150A which was installed at the Apple factory. I haven't tried burning a second DVD to comment on weather this is something that needs to be repeated for every burn. It worked and for now thats good enough.

[southwesteight]

Hi :D

My MacBookPro is a few months old and until last week I hadn't tried burning a DVD, but when I did I received the dreaded error message "Device Failed to Calibrate Laser Power level..."

I've read every post on this thread so far, thanks for the info, I've tried the SMU remove the battery thing it didn't work, I've logged in as a brand new user and that didn't work, I've tried the international voodoo method and unsurprisingly that didn't work either, I've tried reducing the speed; creating an image file; burning from a Video TS folder; I even tried to burn a DATA DVD but everything brings up the same error messages - "Device Failed to Calibrate Laser Power level" or "Sense Key - Medium Error"

I've been using TOAST 7 TITANIUM and DISC UTILITY, The Blank DVDs are Sony DVD-R x16, my internal Burner is a MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-867, Firmware Revision: HA13, DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW, Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO.

--------------------

BUT I THINK I'VE WORKED IT OUT, MAYBE...

The blank Sony DVD-Rs im using are allegedly a NEW STANDARD of high quality DVD-R which require me to check compatibility with my Burner/MacBookPro first. I went to the Apple website to find an update but I didn't see anything specific to my Macbook or even to Superdrives. CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHERE I CAN UPGRADE MY SUPERDRIVE FIRMWARE???

Tomorrow i'll buy some new blank DVDS anyway, probably Verbatium, but I've got the feeling that my MacBookPro needs to be updated so its compatible with the Sony DVD-Rs I already have.

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, I'LL POST BACK ONCE I'VE GOT A DIFFERENT DVD-R PACK.

[ThreeBKK]

Just for future reference, SuperDrive firmware updates can be found here:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/firmware_hardware/

I didn't see any updates for your hardware, southwesteight. Maybe Panasonic (MATSHITA, Matsushita) has an update on their website, but I didn't check.

Are you a recent Windows switcher? I'd guess you are because people who have used Windows for a while generally think they have to scour the internet looking for obscure driver updates. That usually isn't necessary in the Macintosh ecosystem, although there is the occasional exception.

I'd guess that you'll achieve success when you change the DVD media brand.

You might also try:
• cleaning the lens with a kit.
• taking the drive to AppleCare to have the drive swapped out.

[tn_goober]

I have been looking for this answer since this morning with no resolution. This morning using Disk Utility I was trying to burn an .iso image. I have done it before successfully. Then I go the error indicated in the subject:

The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media.

This is the log from Disk Utility:

Aug 28 09:58:11: Disk Utility started.
Burning Image "<file.iso>"
Preparing data for burn
Opening session
Opening track
Writing track
Closing session
Finishing burn
Burn failed
The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media. Unable to burn "<file.iso>"- The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media..

I doing the burning in another mac and is working fine. I'm having this problem in the server.

Ok heres the deal-

I am running an MBP 2.33GHz using OSX 10.4.11. I have been trying to burn a dmg onto a Dual Layer DVD. I first tried burning it in Toast 9.2. I got a whole bunch of errors, I can't remember exactly. Then using Disk Utility- got that same error everyone has been getting- laser can not be calibrated... -- That International-Languages "fix" did NOT work for me. Third times the charm so in finder I opened a new burn folder, dragged the mounted dmg into the folder and clicked burn. That was 90 min ago and the progress bar still says 'state: Opening session 1' and 'Percent complete:' has nothing at all next to it.

In my "About this mac->more info" it tells me I have a Matsushita DVD UJ-857D Firmware revision KCVB and it is capable of burning DVD+R DL Disks. I can't seem to find any firmware upgrades that are available for my system. I am using Memorex DVD+R DL 2.4x disks. I have no Idea where to find the speed that my drive normally writes at.

I really need help figuring out what to do here. should I risk cancelling the burn and risk damaging the disk as it warns me it will if I cancel before it finishes. But its been over 90min and barely seems to have started any progress at all. It is making my entire system sluggish.

Where do I go, what do I download, what do I buy. Is it a matter of finding some obscure website that will have a fix. Is burning a Dual Layer from the finder supposed to take this long. Do I need a different brand of blank DVD? Is there some reason the information in my system profiler be misleading in terms of the format of blank media that my hardware can handle.

please anyone. I could really use some real good advice.
thank you in advance.

[tranquil.not]

Got into this problem yesterday after trying to burn my first double layer DVD with my 24" iMac (2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo - 1Gb SDRAM). I had bought 25 Memorex 8x DVD+R DL (all the other brands were 2.4x so I thought this was the best). First recording went bad at 50% so I found this thread and tried the voodoo (how does one come up with that???!!?). On my second try the burning paused for at least 2 hours at 50%. The computer sounded as a guy with asthma breathing slowly for all this time. At the end it gave up and gave me the "device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media" message. So today I went out looking for Verbatim discs but I only found a 10 pack Sony 2.4x but which had a little AccuCORE logo on the bottom. That worked! Thanks to all!

PS: Anybody want some Memorex double layer DVDs?

[moritzvd]

I've read through the whole thread, I tried the "International" Method and a PRAM Reset, after that I called AppleCare, I will bring it to Service on Tueseday.

My Setup:
MacBook Pro (early 08)
MATSHITADVD-R UJ-867

Read DVD's check
Read CD's check
Burn DVD's does not work
Burn CD'S check

[Guitarplayer119]

I don't know why, but it worked, thanks!

[sporkmaster69]

I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...

I haven't been able to burn a DVD since I can't remember when. It really irritated me and I have looked in forums before for that stupid laser calibration error. Today I needed to burn a DVD and once gain I tried, and failed. Rebooted, tried and failed. Disgusted I looked again and found this rediculous post. My thought was this was some A-hole jerking our chains for fun. But it was utterly harmless to try and so I did. I just finished burning what I think is the first DVD on my Macbook Pro since I've owned it. It worked perfectly and on the first try. I'm stunned honestly. It doesn't make any sense but it worked like a charm for me. I think I'll burn a CD now just to make sure that still works the way it should.

To all you doubting eggheads who scoff at the idea as witchcraft and not science, figure it out. It works. There must be a reason why.
And to all of you who question the validity of the posts always coming fropm newbies...did it ever occur to you that this worked is so incredible that we needed to sign up just to post it.

Awesome and strange !

[bobtheiss]

The trick did not work for me now but I found some interesting info which might be relevant to the topic.

When I first experienced the problem I have tried to write TDK DVD+R for 3 times and then 3 different discs from the same brand too. I just wrote the brand to show that I did not use any noname brand. I got the error message each time and I get it ever since.

But, here comes the interesting part, whenever I try to write DVD-R I have totally no problems doing so. The same happens with CD-R or CD-RW. I never tried to write any DVD+R DL so I have no experiences with that. My assumption is that the issue has something to do with the +R format because if you read trough the posts, most people had problems related to DVD+R or DVD+R DL. Is this somehow possible? What do you think?

I have a MacBook Pro 2.33 15" which I bought 2 years ago and a MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857D. I also installed all the software updates that came out and I run Leopard.

[johngpt]

I just finished burning what I think is the first DVD on my Macbook Pro since I've owned it.
How had it gone trying to get your mbp serviced since it seems to have had this problem since you've had it? Are you the original owner? In some earlier posts in this thread, newer macs that have had this problem had their optical drive/burners exchanged under warranty, and have had no problem with burning after that.

[sporkmaster69]

Johngpt,
I am the original owner and I never had it serviced. It just never worked for me and I wasn't concerned enough most of the time to care, or in a situation where I despreately needed it to work. Mostly it was because I was out of CDs and had a stack of DVDs. Regardless, the DVD burner never worked until I did that rediculous fix. Go figure.

[tyee]

Just tried the seemingly ridiculous solution and succeeded in burning a DVD. :D

I'm using an external firewire DVD burner and had been getting "verification failed" messages prior to this (no fancy hex numbers in my errors though). Verification would stop and the progress bar hadn't moved any. For what it's worth, in the last couple of weeks I had done a wipe and re-install of my system--Mac OS X 10.4.11. Before re-installing, DVD burning worked without a problem! Who knows!! :rolleyes:

[Shroombaker]

Note: Burning DVD-Rs work just dandy. It's a problem with the dual layer media.

I have a stack of DVD+Rs that fail continuously on burns. Using the freeware Burn application, I am given write speeds of 2.4x (?), 4x, 8x, Maximum. The burns fail every time.

On a whim, I purchased a stack of DVD-Rs. Now when I use shareware Burn, I get writing options of different speeds (1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, Maximum). I can now burn at 1x, 2x, 4x, etc., without problems.

So, try switching blank DVDs from the '+' to the '-' type (or vice versa) if you're having problems "calibrating the laser" while burning. :o

Cheers,
Shroombaker

[ThreeBKK]

Shroombaker:

What Mac model are you using? Were they dual layer discs? Until just recently most Mac models haven't supported dual layer +R media. Dual layer -R media has been supported for longer, and on more machines. Double check your Mac's capabilities in System Profiler.

[Shroombaker]

Shroombaker:

What Mac model are you using? Until just recently most Mac models haven't supported dual layer +R media. Dual layer -R media has been supported for longer, and on more machines. Double check your Mac's capabilities in System Profiler.

MacBook Pro

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E:

Firmware Revision: ZA0E
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media:
Media Type: CD-ROM
Blank: No
Erasable: No
Overwritable: No
Appendable: No

[ThreeBKK]

Interesting. Were the recordable discs of the same brand, or not?

[rsonnens]

I just solved this problem a different way after trying the above recommendations without any success--well I tried everything but replacing the drive. The solution came to me when I did a thought exercise about power levels and what could cause them to be off.

First the system. I have an Intel MacMini Core Duo (Not a core two duo) and to it I have an hard drive in a case that looks like it was designed to sit above/below a MacMini that takes firewire (400) and usb. It is connect using both connectors and I have 1 or two USB devices connected to this hard drive enclosure. The drive itself has its own power supply. The drive is mainly used for time machine backups.I also have 3 other USB devices connect to the MacMini (iPhone...)

I burned a few DVDs using the same media when I first got the system a few years ago, I don't think I had the external drive then but the media was the identical media that I am now having trouble with. I have had no issues with CDRs.

My Theory:

Something was drawing power from the MacMini and it did not have enough juice to power the laser correctly.

My proposed solution:

I unmounted the volumes on the drive and I powered off the external drive.

The results:

Burning DVDs now work (even using the exact discs the it kicked out earlier!) I didn't even need to reboot the mac or even log out or back in.

[globalmag]

I'm getting the same error message on a MacBook Pro 17 running 10.5.6

The only I can burn at the moment is by burning at X1 speed...

all other speeds throw up the error...

[bobtheiss]

The trick did not work for me now but I found some interesting info which might be relevant to the topic.

When I first experienced the problem I have tried to write TDK DVD+R for 3 times and then 3 different discs from the same brand too. I just wrote the brand to show that I did not use any noname brand. I got the error message each time and I get it ever since.

But, here comes the interesting part, whenever I try to write DVD-R I have totally no problems doing so. The same happens with CD-R or CD-RW. I never tried to write any DVD+R DL so I have no experiences with that. My assumption is that the issue has something to do with the +R format because if you read trough the posts, most people had problems related to DVD+R or DVD+R DL. Is this somehow possible? What do you think?

I have a MacBook Pro 2.33 15" which I bought 2 years ago and a MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857D. I also installed all the software updates that came out and I run Leopard.

Update:

Since last time, when I was still able to write -R DVD's it turned out now that I'm not able to do so anymore. I get the same error message now for both medias. I tried since then with several brands without any success. :(

[MatuX]

Hello, I'm a new Mac user...

I got the same error after burning about 7 Dual Layers. I do a LOT of burning and one of the biggest problems I've found is that devices tend to get hotter and hotter with each successive burning (d'uh).

I'm not really sure but I could bet that laser intensity for CDs, DVDs and DLs vary, and they tend to need to concentrate more power for each type of media and perhaps, make the discs spin faster, thus making things get so hot internally that the device itself can't correctly adjust the laser power for obvious reasons.

I got the exact same error. Waited 30 minutes (sometimes I need to wait 1 minute) to let the device cool down, tried again and things went marvelously.

Perhaps this is the same situation some people found:

Got really hot due to high laser power and/or high disc spinning, tried several times to burn with no success, device got colder, done some weird thing, re-tried and then things went okay because the device was already in the right temperature.

Just a thought.

[surreyfox]

Hi guys

I'm new to this simply because I wanted to write to tell you that the region code trick does seem to work. I had both the laser power level calibration message and the 0x800020022 message come up, and the drive was making dodgy noises when trying to burn a CD and reading anything. My mac is 8 months old. I tried the trick and it seemed to restore my mac drive to its old self so far. Ironically 2 days ago I put a DVD into the machine that I've never used before and it asked to change the region code - then this drive prob happens. Personally I think that fix is genuine and it works because of the region code probs.

Hope this helps others anyway.

Cheers

[lyonsbrookguy]

I have been trying to burn a DVD on my 24" iMac on many occasions now with a success rate of perhaps 1 in 5. Today I got that "The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media" message for the first time, and arrived in this forum (first time) by googling the problem. I then followed the unbelievable fix under International Language re-ordering." My iPhoto DVD then burned successfully. I was about to take my computer in for a new DVD. Who knew? For Mikey-San, I would be one of those who "Out of nowhere, after it's questioned, new members make their first posts to say (only) that it worked" That's because it's the first time I have ever been here - saw the solution and politely returned to say "thanks - it worked".

[nate88]

Count me among the amused set of people for whom the International Language fix worked.

I just had the 'device failed to calibrate the laser power level' error. Googled this thread. The fix LOOKS harmless enough, so I thought I'd try it. Sure enough - works for me. 24" iMac.

My initial reaction before reading the thread was also to try restarting my machine; I kind of wish I'd tried that first to see whether the international settings had anything to do with resolving the issue. Instead I tried the posted fix. Yay.

I still don't 'believe' in the fix as it doesn't seem meaningful, and I'm curious to know if anyone does find out what the true problem is. However -- I can't complain since I'm now happily burning a DVD.

+Karma for landrick, or whoever this came from. How you came up with it is a mystery....

[JDV]

I'm increasingly inclined to think this is a -cluster- of problems and not a single one; there is so much variance in the circumstances where the various fixes seem to work (or not work, as the case may be) that it seems unlikely that this is a single problem. But it does seem to be a common enough issue that I am surprised that Apple remains quiet on the issue. If there are known situations that produce the error message, Apple should comment on them and give a list of possible fixes; so far, as far as I can tell, nothing official has been said on the subject. The very length of this thread seems to indicate that it is more than just an isolated situation. I'd hope that Apple follows this forum in some way and might make some sort of enlightening contribution on the subject!

Joe VanZandt

[sleeplessj]

I've also just registered to post a reply to the above thread. And it does work! I actually use exactly the same fix when editing in FCP. I bought my macbook pro in Switzerland but I now use it in England with an english keyboard, so unless I do the language change everytime before I use FCP - none of my keyboard shortcuts work. It's annoying but not as annoying as it was trying to reprogram my shortcuts every time! Really happy to find out this works for the buning. Now I wonder if that has anything to do with my burner not burning CDs - I will have to test it - another time.

[matthewclower]

MacBook Pro 3,1
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz
4GB RAM

Matshita DVD-R UJ-857E:
Firmware: ZA0E

I started having this problem within the last week. Since I first noticed the problem I have been unable to burn any DVDs but CD burning still functions properly as has previously been observed. I have tried burning discs using several disc of the following media:

Memorex DVD+R RW 4.7 GB
Sony DVD+R 8.5 GB AccuCore RW

Of course, as most people, looking at the proposed solution for this problem I have doubts because the solution appears to be completely unrelated to the problem. I intend to in the short future try a few more things, but I don't have much spare time to devote to this problem. I will attempt to burn DVDs in native and virtualized instances of Windows XP, etc. Considering that this issue has been "unresolved" for over a year, I don't expect results soon. It would be nice for this to be cleared up however.

[sergemarlon]

Hey All, I am an Apple tech, I experience this issue quite often, so I'll be doing some updates from now on about this issue, I just got the error message and after googling the issue, I found this as a top hit, Unfortunately, it didn't work this time around, but I'll give it a shot every time I encounter this issue, and let you all know if it works for sure or not, the computer was an early 2008 black macbook running 10.5.6 2.4 GHz processor.

[matthewclower]

I launched Windows XP in Parallels 4.0 -- so it was virtualized under Leopard. The drive was recognized as a DVD/CD-RW, inserting a blank DVD was recognized as a blank CD, and everything after that was some kind of error message. Truthfully, I have never had the inclination or need to attempt burning anything in a virtualized environment (at least not on my MacBook Pro) so I don't know that it would have ever functioned properly in there to begin with. I copied the data I am trying to get on DVD to a drive partition that is accessible from my native XP instance, and I'll try that next time I boot natively into XP (that will probably be later today).

While this problem persists, it at least appears to be burning a DVD now. I selected 2.4x when I started to burn the disc instead of allowing it to attempt to determine the maximum burning speed of the media/drive.

MacBook Pro 3,1
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz
4GB RAM

Matshita DVD-R UJ-857E:
Firmware: ZA0E

I started having this problem within the last week. Since I first noticed the problem I have been unable to burn any DVDs but CD burning still functions properly as has previously been observed. I have tried burning discs using several disc of the following media:

Memorex DVD+R RW 4.7 GB
Sony DVD+R 8.5 GB AccuCore RW

Of course, as most people, looking at the proposed solution for this problem I have doubts because the solution appears to be completely unrelated to the problem. I intend to in the short future try a few more things, but I don't have much spare time to devote to this problem. I will attempt to burn DVDs in native and virtualized instances of Windows XP, etc. Considering that this issue has been "unresolved" for over a year, I don't expect results soon. It would be nice for this to be cleared up however.

[enderbh]

I have found a solution to the "device could not calibrate laser power" issue, which is to reset the SMC controller, which is done by
1:) Shutting down system
2:) Removing A/C Power and Battery
3:) Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds
4:) reassemble and reboot

This resolved the laser power issue on my MacBookPro 3,1 with UJ-857E w/ ZA0E firmware. Allowed DVD+R DL burning with out issue. Hope this helps someone!

[enderbh]

Oh, and that was using Sony DVD media, BTW

[matthewclower]

Resetting the SMC on my MBP (the exact configuration quoted) did not correct this problem for me in Leopard.

I have found a solution to the "device could not calibrate laser power" issue, which is to reset the SMC controller, which is done by
1:) Shutting down system
2:) Removing A/C Power and Battery
3:) Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds
4:) reassemble and reboot

This resolved the laser power issue on my MacBookPro 3,1 with UJ-857E w/ ZA0E firmware. Allowed DVD+R DL burning with out issue. Hope this helps someone!

[daniello]

I suddenly started after I have owned the system (dual Quad Core 3GHz) for over a year. I have burned many CDs and DVDs (+R, DL) on it without problem. It has been tough to figure out because I just blasted out my system with an aerosol duster for the first time. I resolved to do this bimonthly on the advice of the repair technician after having my ATI 1900XT card fail and have to be replaced due to dust build up (it was replaced in early January 09). Poorly designed card vents easily clog--but I digress. So I am considering it might be dust on the lasers but it seems odd both drives would fail at the same time.

Lacking a cleaning disc, I opted for the voodoo above which has failed to work after two times. Next I will try the SMC reset and then a cleaning disc. If all fail then it will be another Applecare house call--fortunately I am still covered.

[grayelantra001]

I don't know if this has been posted already, but I found a weird fix to this problem. When the CD is inserted, tell the computer to ignore it. iTunes should burn the disc with no problem. Don't ask me why, but I read it in another thread, tried it, and have now burned 5 cd's without a problem...
Finder screwing with the laser level maybe? I had the computer set to open finder when CD's are inserted. Maybe the OS does something in preparation for a burn that operates the burner differently than iTunes. I don't know, but give it a shot.

[grayelantra001]

In reply to my advice above, there is definitely some sort of weird bug with this. While I can burn single CD's, if iTunes prompts you to insert a blank disc (to burn a multi-cd audiobook or something) it goes right back to the level calibration message. So, the only way I can burn discs is to insert, ignore, and make sure I open iTunes AFTER the disc is inserted...
And I'm wondering to myself...why the heck would this be the case?

Ok...

And...

That didn't work. I was inserting the discs into my laptop to make sure the data was on them and that they were audio cd's, but now that I'm going back and trying to listen to them, it burned "phantom" tracks. The tracks are there, numbered and the disc thinks it is an audio disc, but the files are all 44kb and not the book.

[matthewclower]

Early on it was pointed out that at least several users can burn CDs but cannot burn DVDs. I am in that boat. I don't have any problems making CDs. It's only a problem with DVDs for me.

I don't know if this has been posted already, but I found a weird fix to this problem. When the CD is inserted, tell the computer to ignore it. iTunes should burn the disc with no problem. Don't ask me why, but I read it in another thread, tried it, and have now burned 5 cd's without a problem...
Finder screwing with the laser level maybe? I had the computer set to open finder when CD's are inserted. Maybe the OS does something in preparation for a burn that operates the burner differently than iTunes. I don't know, but give it a shot.

[johngpt]

Am I mistaken in my recall that CDs had not been a problem with the calibration conundrum? I thought it had only been DVDs.

[matthewclower]

There are lots of people that have pointed out that they can still burn CDs, but not everyone -- while everyone with the issue seems to have problems with DVDs. I suppose I forgot to ask in my above post...

For clarification, @grayelantra001: do you mean DVDs? Or do you have the same problem with CDs?

Am I mistaken in my recall that CDs had not been a problem with the calibration conundrum? I thought it had only been DVDs.

I don't know if this has been posted already, but I found a weird fix to this problem. When the CD is inserted, tell the computer to ignore it. iTunes should burn the disc with no problem. Don't ask me why, but I read it in another thread, tried it, and have now burned 5 cd's without a problem...
Finder screwing with the laser level maybe? I had the computer set to open finder when CD's are inserted. Maybe the OS does something in preparation for a burn that operates the burner differently than iTunes. I don't know, but give it a shot.

[Chipped]

While visiting my in-laws I was getting this error about the laser failing to calibrate. When I got home, I was burning without problems. I applied no "fixes" as mentioned here. Just plugged into a different electrical outlet!

I was thinking my Mac had got fried somehow, but upon getting home and trying to burn again, everything seems fine.

I'm on a 17" Macbook Pro 2006 edition (1st Gen) 2.16 ghz

[grayelantra001]

I'm sorry I thought it was a CD problem. I can't burn anything anyway. I tried to burn a dvd in toast today and I'm getting a sense key error in there. I'm gonna try a cleaner and if that's not the solution I'm gonna get a new superdrive.

[CheckMate2k9]

Hi, I try many things and this following soft works :
Express Burn Disc Burning Software

[accepthim]

MacBook Pro
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP31.0070.B07
OSX 10.5.6

I had the calibrate laser power issue booting into OSX 10.5.6 so I tried booting in to Windows XP. I could not burn anything there. The international fix was useless so I tried the short bursts of canned air. Everything works fine now. Try the air first!

[Sormaz]

Thought I would share my experience. Had this happening to me yesterday and was very dissappointed as I just replaced the drive a few months ago. Tried the international solution to no avail and had given up. Just checking around again today and noticed someone suggested compressed air, figured why the hell not, If I'm just going to have to shell out for a new drive anyway.

Well, it worked! Very excited about this

[johngpt]

The international fix was useless so I tried the short bursts of canned air. Everything works fine now. Try the air first!
Some others have had success with this. Whether it's due to some cleaning effect or cooling effect, is undetermined.

[sherby_paladin]

I'm Canadian and my Mac speaks french. I've This trick worked for me too. I'm quite surprised myself about Apple and this whole thing. What does a stinkin' DVD burner have to do with language or that type of settings anyway? Don't Apple want to sell computers in other countries too? E$pecially in these times... :confused: :rolleyes:

[sherby_paladin]

I'm also wondering: why won't Apple react to this problem and offer an update for this? Can't any of you call Apple or a source at Apple to tell them? I bought this $2000 computer just to get a "SuperDrive" that won't work as well as my old DVD burner on my PC? I'm a recent convert and, once the honeymoon is over, you slowly start to find out about such flaws in your new machine, how disappointing!

Why is Apple so protective of zones. Gee! I'm in Canada! We're a goddam US colony for cr***sake! We live like you do, watch the same shows, buy the same computers, etc, etc. (except we get free healthcare and more social measures, that's why our crime rate is so low).

This being said, couldn't this thread lead to a solution?

[chrissig]

I just bought a used lacie dvd burner (NEC 3500ag firewire) to run with my emac (mac os 10.4.11). The device was working when I bought it- but not for me.
I could burn and read cd's. which made me hopeful.
I could read DVD's no prob, too.
When i tried to burn I got "a connection not stable error."
I had a number of other errors. including the could not calibrate laser error.
I was using fuji dvd-r discs.
I updated the firmware from the lacie website- still no luck.
Tried changing the language to US as posted above.
still no Burn.
I ran the apple 10.4.11 composite update and changed to a Maxell +RW disc.
Success. for now.
I think there are a number of issues at hand. There seems to be a software bug and finding the right blank dvd's.
I was lucky that my brother had the Maxell discs which were recommended to him by a friend.
I really wasn't keen to buy a bunch of different makes of blank discs to try since none of the errors i got related to which disc I was using.
I spent a lot of time looking for solutions and i'm amazed how many posts are on this thread.

[macfb]

Problem for me was DEFINITELY a DUSTY LENS. SOLUTION clean the lens

I had exactly the same problem with my MBP. I looked at this forum and others and found a solution. Many of the posts suggest the air can thing, i chickened out as the can said flammable and i didn't want to risk my computer, also i didn't want to spend the £8. What I found was a website, link given below, that told me how of open my computer up, take the disk drive out, open the disk drive and then clean the lens itself. The process was actually not that bad and now my computer is burning media like it did the day it was new. I used gin on a ear bud (Q-tip) to clean the actual lens. Really happy and I saved £8, it is a bear market you know, but more importantly if the problem is a dirty lens then you can't get it cleaner than giving the lens a clean directly. Obviously don't do this if you are in warranty or apple care, as apple should sort it and it will invalidate your warranty. Good luck and be careful, if this is beyond you try the air can to clean, the lens is bottom left, or pay an apple authorised shop to do it for you.

http://muzso.hu/2008/08/17/how-to-clean-the-lens-of-a-slot-loading-optical-drive-a-macbook-pros-superdrive

[stemcel]

I got here from the google search "failed to calibrate the laser power level". Read all the responses, decided to try the language settings voodoo first because it just sounded like so much fun.

I'm not as dismissive as the proposed cause (mishandled exceptions) as the previous poster was, and region problems could also be the case.

I had some stuff going that I didn't want to cancel to log out, so after applying the language trick I just picked up my laptop and blew into it (carefully, low moisture high velocity etc.). Worked like a charm...

So now I'll never know.

My guess is that there are multiple causes for this error, and that the language voodoo only fixes one of them. My problem was most likely dust.

[stemcel]

I celebrated too early. Burn failed at thirty-something percent. Back to the drawing board... Damnitall why does it not "Just Work™"?

™ satirical only

[iwantthegold]

well I just called apple care since I figured they would know something that everybody couldn't figure out... yeah right... the lady tells me to reset my smc and then on the power on press option+apple+P+R ... something about resetting power settings... someone else might know more about that... but no luck with any of that...i feel like she knew nothing more than the what was written on her screen which is not always the case in my experience.. but whatever... I am going out to get a can of compressed air and if that doesnt work than that cd cleaner will be next and if all else fails i'll go for the replacement... let's hope it doesn't come to that

[iwantthegold]

well I found a can of compressed air and did a couple sweeps with the computer off (just to be sure) and while it still doesn't go right into burning (the drive powers up and levels off once or twice) I have burned two different kinds of media (TDK and memorex DVD's) so give it a shot

[Captain Tylor]

I solved (at least my version of) the problem. :)

THE SOLUTION: Manually set the burn speed to match the rated speed for your disc.


WHY:
After a good bit of research, I learned of the DiscRecording.log created by Finder when you try to burn a disc -- it's located at ~/Library/Logs/DiscRecording.log

When reviewing the log entries relevant to my "The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media" errors, I noticed the following:

"Finder: Requested burn speed was 47x, actual burn speed is 2.4x."

The burn dialog had been showing me two choices in the speed dropdown:

- Maximum Possible (2.4x)
- 2.4x

They're the same, right? So I never changed it from the default choice of maximum possible. Well, as the log file revealed, Finder was actually requesting 47x which is definitely not going to work for a 2.4x DL DVD!

Manually selecting 2.4x as the burn speed fixed things right up.

[displayb333]

I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:
<snip>
Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...

Colour me incredulous, but this achieved the desired result for me.

Voodoo, sure; rubbish, maybe; fixed (for the moment), yes.


Hardware Overview:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version: 1.30f1
Serial Number: YM825273ZE4

OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5630A:

Model: OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5630A
Revision: 1AHN
Serial Number:
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
Low Power Polling: Yes
Power Off: No



Before:

2009-04-28 06:56:04 +1000:
2009-04-28 07:00:19 +1000: Burning Image “Stevie 20090425.img”
2009-04-28 07:00:46 +1000: Image name: “Stevie 20090425.img”
2009-04-28 07:00:46 +1000: Burn disc in: “OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5630A”
2009-04-28 07:00:46 +1000: Erase disc before burning: No
2009-04-28 07:00:46 +1000: Leave disc appendable: No
2009-04-28 07:00:46 +1000: Verify burned data after burning: Yes
2009-04-28 07:00:46 +1000: Eject disc after burning
2009-04-28 07:00:46 +1000:
2009-04-28 07:00:46 +1000: Preparing data for burn
2009-04-28 07:00:46 +1000: Opening session
2009-04-28 07:00:46 +1000: Opening track
2009-04-28 07:00:46 +1000: Writing track
2009-04-28 07:01:11 +1000: Finishing burn
2009-04-28 07:02:11 +1000: Closing session
2009-04-28 07:02:11 +1000: Finishing burn
2009-04-28 07:02:16 +1000: Burn failed
2009-04-28 07:02:16 +1000: The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media.
2009-04-28 07:02:21 +1000: Unable to burn “Stevie 20090425.img”. (The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media.)


After:

2009-04-28 07:13:39 +1000: Disk Utility started.

2009-04-28 07:16:35 +1000: Burning Image “Stevie 20090425.img”
2009-04-28 07:16:57 +1000: Image name: “Stevie 20090425.img”
2009-04-28 07:16:57 +1000: Burn disc in: “OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5630A”
2009-04-28 07:16:57 +1000: Erase disc before burning: No
2009-04-28 07:16:57 +1000: Leave disc appendable: No
2009-04-28 07:16:57 +1000: Verify burned data after burning: Yes
2009-04-28 07:16:57 +1000: Eject disc after burning
2009-04-28 07:16:57 +1000:
2009-04-28 07:16:58 +1000: Preparing data for burn
2009-04-28 07:16:58 +1000: Opening session
2009-04-28 07:16:58 +1000: Opening track
2009-04-28 07:16:58 +1000: Writing track
2009-04-28 07:22:19 +1000: Closing track
2009-04-28 07:22:19 +1000: Closing session
2009-04-28 07:24:38 +1000: Finishing burn
2009-04-28 07:24:38 +1000: Verifying burn…
2009-04-28 07:24:38 +1000: Verifying
2009-04-28 07:27:02 +1000: Burn completed successfully
2009-04-28 07:27:03 +1000: Additional information can be found in the ~/Library/Logs/DiscRecording.log log file.
2009-04-28 07:27:03 +1000: Image “Stevie 20090425.img” burned successfully.
2009-04-28 07:27:03 +1000:

[Hawky]

I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...

Just had to register here, because i can't believe this actually worked!

I was getting the laser drive media error using Burn but did this, restarted Laptop and it works fine now!

Laptop Spec:

Macbook Pro 15.4" (late 2008 model)
Mac OS X 10.5.6
CPU: 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 4GB 1067HMz DDR3

Thanks man, i was panicking for a while thinking i would have to take it to the Apple Store!

[wheelerb]

I discovered that I had this problem a couple of months ago and after cleaning both drives and trying the Language trick I was still unable to burn dvds. I called apple care and the were unable to help and suggested that I take the computer to a Mac store. I did this and the Tech called to tell me that at the store the drives burnt dvds with no issues. Still, I was disappointed when I returned home with the computer and neither of the drives would burn and I got the same laser cal. error. I will be calling apple care again tomorrow and I will let you all know if I make a break through.

Because I know it will be mentioned. The dvds I am using have worked many times in the past on this same machine and I have tried dozens of them since the onset of this problem.

If anyone has thoughts on the matter or if I have missed any possible solutions, I would love to hear from you.

Thanks.

[wheelerb]

Also, I would like to point out that in my case I am not trying to burn DL DVDs, just regular 4.7GB Single Layer Disks.

[trevor]

Because I know it will be mentioned. The dvds I am using have worked many times in the past on this same machine and I have tried dozens of them since the onset of this problem.

That doesn't particularly matter. Perhaps you've got a bad batch, perhaps the company whose name is on the DVDs changed their source. Whatever the reason, try a different brand of DVD media.

Trevor

[Oatmeal]

Just wanted to join up so I could chime in. I just tried the date fix, and it worked. It only worked with US English selected. First time I just chose English, and it still failed. Don't know why it works, don't really care, just wanted to say it worked for me. Thanks for the help ya'll!

[wheelerb]

Bought Verbatim DVD-R and the problem persists after several attempts on both super drives. I think we can rule out the type of Media at this time.

The other disks I have used were Memorex. I was previously able to burn these disks.

[JDV]

I'm repeating what I have said before, but this thread is becoming so long that I think it bears repeating. I strongly suspect that the error message may be given under a number of different circumstances, which is why some fixes work for some and not for others. I am disappointed that a problem which seems to have affected so many users hasn't drawn much comment from Apple. A more intuitive or explanatory message for the various conditions (if my assumption is correct) would help immensely.

Joe VanZandt

[wheelerb]

JDV, I agree this is very upsetting.

I have just finished a call to applecare and I was told to upgrade from 10.5.4 to 10.5.6 and to install any java, security, and firmware updates.

I have completed all of these tasks and the problem persists. I tried burning with both Memorex DVD-Rs and Verbatim DVD-Rs on both super drives.

Calling Applecare back now.

[wheelerb]

Ok, Every one at Apple is stumped so they are going to send a repair tech to replace some of the components including, the super drives and the Power supply. I'll keep you posted as I learn more.

[Thomsen-1352]

I also had the "device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media" and the fix did nothing for me.

Just got my drive working after using air duster and a cd lens cleaner. Both cd's and dvd's can be burned again.


Thomas

[wheelerb]

Repair scheduled for Monday. We'll see what happens.

Also, I thought that I would mention that on my last call to Applecare they representative had me do the Language change fix. I don't know if this means this is a legit fix or perhaps these guys are just reading these forums to find answers. I had not been instructed to do this on previous calls.

[kel101]

Repair scheduled for Monday. We'll see what happens.

Also, I thought that I would mention that on my last call to Applecare they representative had me do the Language change fix. I don't know if this means this is a legit fix or perhaps these guys are just reading these forums to find answers. I had not been instructed to do this on previous calls.

hmm ithink i'll give them a call too, but i no longer have apple care so it will probably cost me a lot if i send for repair. Though i will try the compressed air thing first

[Cleve]

I like the idea that different fixes work for different systems and circumstances. After working all day to resolve the problem of not being able to burn to DVD, I realized I was using DVD+R. So I tried the DVD-R instead and the burn went so fast and flawlessly I thought I was seeing things. This was also after I had spent all that time trying out different DVD lens cleaners, running them over and over again. I'm using an iMac 5.5 with 2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 gig ram, burning DVDs using iDVD 7.0

[wheelerb]

I have just successfully burned two dvds.

I had both drives and the power cable between the drives and the motherboard replaced. I wish that I had a cheaper solution for those of you without applecare coverage but in my case this is what was needed. As you can see from my previous posts, All other options had been looked at to solve this problem before I got to this point.

Both the drives and the power cable were swapped at the same time so I can not say for sure that it was one or the other. However, for those still dealing with this issue I would recommend replacing the power cable first before shelling out the money for new drives. At this point I feel comfortable recommending the following steps for resolving this issue.

1. Clean the drives with a lens cleaner and compressed air.
2. Buy a new batch of dvds in case the ones you are using are flawed. Verbatim DVD-Rs are very reliable and I know that they have worked for many others.
3. Try the language change trick listed earlier in this thread
4. Create a new user account and try burning from there to eliminate the possibility of a software or settings conflict.
5. Replace the power cable for the DVD drives.
6. Replace the Drives themselves.

I can't think of any other steps and I don't know if there is anything left to do if none of these options works for you. I think that this is about as far as I can go in investigating this issue. If anyone has questions regarding my experiences please ask.

[JDV]

I'm very pleased that you are back to working properly, but a bit unhappy that the Apple tech people didn't try to isolate a cause. Replacing the drive cable and both drives is pretty radical surgery by most standards, and it does nothing to shed light on the problem as it is reported in so many posts. Still, it is good that they have yours working properly!

Joe VanZandt

[simulation0110]

I never gave up, found this hint in here, figured I had nothing else to lose as it was 2am, and voila! It worked and saved me from certain embarrassment!
Teh skeptics had me wondering as well. But I tried anyway.
I've been on macs for a while, and while I've never been a power user, I've seen a lot of weird fixes but NOTHING like this.

Who ever came up with this is a genius!

[citydesk]

I know there is some question about new members just joining to verify this solution, but I have to say, it absolutely worked for me. I'm handy with a Mac but far from a guru. The fix seemed harmless enough so I attempted it with nothing to lose, restarted and successfully burned a CD. Don't know why it worked, but it did.

Thanks.

[GeckoFrey]

okay so I have been looking at this thread for hours trying to figure something out with it. I tried the language settings... nothing. Tried repairing permissions... nothing. Tried all different speeds and not having the disk verified after... nothing. So finally i just decided to play the img file on my computer... let it play for about 10 sec and then paused it. Went back to the disk utility and tried to burn the dvd. and sure enough it worked. I have burned about 10 dvds before this and they went flawlessly so this is the first time I tried something like this.

[unimog]

As a forum lurker until now, this thread has me jumping in. Posting another success with some details:

I have been seeing this same error, with a new Mac Mini (Spring 2009) and Memorex DVD+R DL (8x, 8.5GB) media. After making a couple of coaster dvd's, I found this thread, tried the steps (http://forums.macosxhints.com/showpost.php?p=440055&postcount=9) posted by landrick and successfully burned a dual layer image.

FYI, I did not have to log out or restart.

Great forum, great forum users!

[Shetbox]

Ok, so here it is. I did what the questionable fix said and in all honesty it worked. Finder was not burning, got the said error message. Toast was also being funky, I applied the fix, and was able to burn from finder. I did however try burning at a slower speed, so perhaps that had something to do with it, that or the reset.

but it works now, so next is to see if it must be repeated before each burn.

I used my real name so as to make sure you all understand that I am a real person, who actually experienced this problem.

Strange, I am also going to get a cleaner disk tomorrow.

[Shetbox]

Ok I went back and restarted again, used different media. Now toast worked on a different manufacturer of DVD-R. But didnt work again with the disks I encountered the problem with in the first place. The fix which was suspect worked, but to be honest I think that the shifting of burn speeds and the change in media made the real difference...... still pissed about why I had to do that but memories of a glass of whiskey carelessly poured into my brand new macbook could be the cause.

You do not need to repeat it for ever burn that is just BS... Disk was burned from finder after a restart, and a second disk was burned in toast 9 after a change in media and a restart..... I still think the problem lies in the lens. Main thing which is suspect with this fix.......all of the "people" who say it works have 8 letters to their handles.... Ironhead, Mikey-San, Landrick.....

:-)

Change media (i.e use a different brand of disk) restart the computer, burn at a slower speed. This is what made my Macbook pro 2.53ghz core2 duo 4gig ram 10.5.6 beast start burning again. Worked in finder and in Toast 9.

I will also use a lens cleaner tomorrow.

Cheers

[mrbigpappa]

I was thinking that the whole language reset fix was strange so I looked at the fix and saw the only logical part of the fix that could effect any change on my computer was at the end of the fix when it instructed me to restart my computer. So I skipped everything else in the fix and only restarted my computer and it fixed my problem. So yes the fix worked but anything that you would have told me to do before restarting my computer would have worked as well. I have a new fix. Send me $20 then restart your computer and it will work.... Just a thought..... :-)

[Ollie]

Hi everyone,

Joined this thread as I also wanted to confirm that the fix worked for me and I have had no problems since.

I was also getting problems with Toast and now these errors have gone as well.

I am using Matshita DVD-R UJ-846 drive.

I know its hard to believe for some, but I tried to burn some files using Disk Utility on to a TDK DVD +R several times and got the error and the disk was ejected after 10 seconds. After trying the fix, I used the same disk and it worked. So I can't see how it could be a fault with the quality of the disks.

Hope it works for more of you

[justin6512]

I was having these same issues so I went down to the store and bought some compressed air. I gave my super drive a good blast and whalaa, it's fixed. My MBP is just under 2 years old, and I haven't done a lot of burning so I knew it couldn't be a dead drive.

The tech at my local Mac shop said the same laser in the super drive is used to read / write, but when you write to a disc the laser is using a much higher voltage. If you have a slightly dirty lens then it is possible the laser cannot reach the correct voltage to burn.

Hope this works!:)

[ThreeBKK]

I finally found a reason to burn a DVD yesterday, and I repeatedly got the calibration error message. Over the past two days I must have tried more than a dozen times to burn the same .dmg onto the same DVD+RW using the same Mac. Rebooting didn't fix the problem. I put the PowerBook to sleep for about 20 or 30 minutes until it was cool to the touch. Immediately after waking the Mac I tried burning the disc again and it worked. High internal temperature seems to have been the cause of the failure in my case. The fix that started this post was next on my list of things to try.

[Marlboro Man]

Was trying to burn a DVD a few days ago, got the silly unable to calibrate error in Burn, Toast, and Disk Utility, on disk after disk.

Called AppleCare yesterday and had a pleasant chat with the rep. He didn't really recommend anything I hadn't tried, but he was pleasant and chatty, so I really didn't mind all that much. I was instructed to reset the SMC & NVRAM, which I had already done, create new user account and try there (no luck), then repair permissions (worked once). Basically a wasted 45 minutes, but at least the fellow was pleasant and spoke good English, unlike my previous experiences with PC tech support. Changing media solved the problem.

While I tried the voodoo suggested early on which met with failure, I suspect the problem in my case is mostly media related. I luckily had three different brands of DVD at my disposal: Verbatim -R (several years old, found around the house during the nonburning nightmare), Sony +R and the Apple branded -R. The Sony +R's work about 25% of the time, the Apple -R has a 50% success rate, while the Verbatim -R's worked every single time, out of a spindle of 50. I'm far from an expert, but it seems the Apple drives are quite a bit more finicky with media, as the same disks my MBP spit out burned fine on a five year old Dell.

[awhitty]

Just to add another case in support of this solution. Using Leopard 10.5.7.

[ThreeBKK]

I almost forgot.
Drive used: MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-835E
Firmware revision: GAND
Media type: Verbatim DVD+RW (single layer) 1-4x

I had only a single disc that I tried burning over and over again.

[untamedpeace]

I got the same error message on my mac book pro after having to hard bootdown in midst of a dvd burn attempt that made a loud noise (possibly because of a sticker on disc) and then wouldn't stop spinning..


i googled the errormessage and found this forum as one of the top hits...

first i figured i'd need to get a disc cleaning cd but of course decided to try the "incredible fix" first

seems to straighten up a wrinkle in puters thinking process or something and the exact disc (bunch of jpg pictures) burned right away...

so i'm posting cos -yes i too am a new name here" but i've never before been as surprised by a fix and i often come on forums in search for answers and it deserves more people knowing it...

ps standard SEO would explain that this thread gets top spots since it's got a lot more followup posts than the others under same category... don't have anything to do with what google deems a likely source to have mac answers

[Plagued]

I have a Macbook Pro
My disc drive is:

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857:

Firmware Revision: HAE4
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media:
Type: CD-ROM
Blank: No
Erasable: No
Overwritable: No
Appendable: No


Okay, so I tried that incredible fix, which doesn't work.
Secondly I used Dust Off, the compressed air, which worked perfectly.
Figured I should make an account to post a working (for me at least) solution.
TRY CLEANING YOUR WITH COMPRESSED AIR.

[normand]

I have been experiencing the same problem but only when attempting to
backup my Itunes library. After several attempts, four different types of media, DVD and CD, nothing worked. I also tried the strange fix noted here and that didn't work either. Over the last couple of years, I have been consistently loosing the same Itunes store purchased songs over and over. I then decided to see if this was a drive problem and burned an Itunes playlist, which worked just fine. CDs and DVDs also function properly in playback mode. I contacted my local Apple store and was surprised to find that there was a customer in store at the very moment with exactly the same problem, however, she is dealing with the issue on a PC.
So, am I thinking that this is an Itunes software issue? Has anyone gotten a response from Apple regarding the problem?

thanks

[chrisbaskind]

OK, I'm a suspicious new member with a single post, but the screen name is my real name and I'd respond to administrator emails confirming that.

This "incredible fix" has no business working, but it did for my dualie G5 PowerMac with a Sony DVD RW DW-U10A drive.

I'd largely given up trying to burn media. Toast's error messages weren't helpful, but I decided to give it a shot in Disk Utility and received a more verbose failure. Googled the error message, which brought me here.

This is by far the most bizarre Mac fix-it tip I've ever successfully executed. It defies logic, but worked immediately.

[CaldwellOne]

First post but thought I should chime in. That weird workaround Worked for me Must have to do with clearing region settings or something...

iMac G5 10.5.6
Matshita UJ-846

[wwwluckyro]

The fix did not work for me. I've read pretty much every post in this thread. I also tried by adding U.S. English and moving that around with no luck. I'm going to buy another brand of DVDs.

I'm trying to burn a Leopard image on a DL DVD. The brand of DVD I'm using is Princo. Never heard of it before. I'm using a MacBook Pro unibody to burn it. I rarely used the burner, probably not more than 5 times since I bought it in December.

[aussiefaz]

Ok thought Id post on this, first time here.

I tried the voodoo fix and it didnt work, even after 3 attempts at it.

I have a macbookpro with the below specs for dvd burner
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E:

Firmware Revision: ZA0E
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds

As to using the media with dvd+ and dvd- Ive always used the dvd+ and never had any problems until recently. I currently have a 50pack of verbatim dvd+ 16x. The exact same disk that was giving me the error on my macbook pro has now been used to burn the dvd I was attempting to burn, by using the burner in my macmini which is only a month old. I had to pop the file into my public folder and burn it over the network.

I cant see how the media would be the problem when the dvd+ have always worked for me before.

For now I am going to search for more information to see if someone has actually found a real fix for this, as this voodoo one just doesn't cut it as the proper way to go about it.

If anyone has found something that actually works, please let me know.

[trinityct]

I can verify that at least one case of this error "...device failed to calibrate the laser" was solved by using a $11 CD/DVD disk cleaner. Mine happened to be from memorex but there are many other brands out there. I'm back in business.

[reinvh]

I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...

hi guy's

the fix didn't work for me. what did help me was to clean my lens!
I've had this problem before with toast(before i reinstalled my macbook pro)
and i remember then i also cleaned my lens!

[reinvh]

sorry meant laser instead of lens!! :)

[Hawky]

Argh my Macbook Pro is getting this error again and the fix posted at the beginning (language change) is not working this time! :(

[fool]

Hi - I kept getting this error just trying to burn a CD in iTunes on a Macbook Pro core 2 duo with a MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857D optical drive. I don't know anything about the media because someone just gave me a stack of cd-r's that have no markings on them at all. (These are probably older cds.) I finally set the burn speed from "Maximum possible" to 12x and it worked fine. Next one I will try at a faster speed. I usually don't have any trouble with newer media. The console messages were all referencing the burn speed before the crash, so I started there. I'll see how fast of a burning speed I can use on these, until I use them up...

[generaljap]

Ok people heres the deal....

I tried EVERY SINGLE TRICK throughout this thread, and none of them worked except for one. I went to Staples and bought a $12 CD Cleaner. It's just a CD with the little brushes on the bottom to clean the laser. IF YOU HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING BUT THIS I URGE YOU TO TRY IT. I tried compressed air but that did nothing so don't think because you tried that it rules out a CD cleaner working. Below are the specs for my computer and drive. MY ONLY PROBLEM HAS BEEN BURNING DL DVD's. EVERYTHING else burnt just fine. So if this sounds similar to your situation I suggest you go get a cd cleaner.

Macbook Pro late 2007 model

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E: Firmware Revision: ZA0E

I am currently burning a DL DVD for a xbox 360 backup game using OSx360. I'm using Verbatim DVD+DL.

I suspect that if the language and other misc software related tricks have worked for you then cleaning your laser may not be the solution for you. I would think then your fix would be somehow software related. I received the fail to calibrate laser power message almost instantly upon trying to burn a DL DVD and nothing changed after any of these proposed solutions except of course for the disc cleaner.

Hopefully the disc works and finishes burning. Good luck to the rest of you.

[joolsca]

Wow! he language fix worked for me! Amazing...never in a million years could I have found that myself....weird....

[cvb]

The evil “the device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media” arose today. I tried many “fixes” - air, reboots, etc. Nothing.

I even tried the International Voodoo Trick with many different variations (US English, English, etc.) but that too didn’t work.

I then tried the recently prescribed “Go to Staples and buy for $12 their CD/DVD Drive Cleaner”.

This worked!http://forums.macosxhints.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Thanks,

CVB
(problem machine: MacBook Pro 15” 2.16 GHz SuperDrive=Matshita UJ-857D)

[2020]

Using MacBook Pro 15” 2.16 GHz SuperDrive=Matshita UJ-857D. OS 10.5.7
Had 'failed to calibrate' yesterday, tried restart, tried 3 seperate dvd's, tried language reset and nothing changed. Just Updated to 10.5.8 inserted 'used' disc from yesterday and worked first time.....

[macoldtimer]

I have a Mac Book Pro (15") and a G5 iMac both with same problem and the compressed airblast worked on both of them (I used a Maplin own brand cannister). It also worked with my boys' Wii that was ramdomly failing to read some (newer) discs

[danbri]

Hey, guess what! I found this page by googling the error message. I wasted two DVDs (Bulkpaq, fwiw) before trying the language-change trick above. I closed all my apps, rebooted, and tried again. It burned the disk just fine this time.

Re the skeptics above, yup I've just signed up on this site specifically to comment on this point. I've read it before but never had anything positive to contribute (I could rant about my Air's hinge, or iTunes corruption losing all my iphone apps, but I'm not sure that helps). If you think I'm a glovepuppet, send me an email, google me etc if you like, but it might be more productive to hassle the site admins into adding OpenID support so you can be more assured that I'm the guy whose openid is http://danbri.org.

So - how did it work? *Did* it work? Maybe for everyone it worked for, there were 10 who tried it, got a failure message, and decided not to waste any more time on the topic. Maybe just having less apps running (after a reboot) was a factor. Maybe it was to do with disk region. Or maybe just 1 time in 10 it would've worked anyway...

[danbri]

OK I take it back, the international settings voodoo trick stopped working for me when I tried burning a 2nd disk, some hours later. Maybe 'cos I have loads of apps open. Or maybe because I doubted the voodoo and it somehow sensed this. Still I thought I ought to make the effort to report the negative case, since the positive report earlier was my first forum post here.

[july1962]

Haven't been able to burn DVD's for a month or more now, and the last few that I did burn will not play in my Blu-ray DVD player. Tried all the suggestions here, blown air and the "fix" and nothing has worked. I'm going to get Snow Leopard tomorrow and hopefully that will make it work again. From all that I've read, it seems pretty clear that it's related to the region settings.

[july1962]

I have Snow Leopard installed and still can't burn dvds. But now there is a different message: "Unable to burn "name of disk" (The disc can't be burned; it might be incompatible with this disc drive. Please try a different brand of disk, or try burning at a slower speed.)

I've been using these TDK disks for years with no problems. I don't know what to do next.

[july1962]

Update: I just took one of the dvd drives completely out, took it apart and blew it out with air and cleaned the lens with alcohol. Put it all back together and it's working. I haven't tried the second drive yet, but this looks promising.:o

[sck_nogas]

Okay, this is frigging annoying....

On my MacBook Pro 17, I could burn two DVD+R DL after doing the "international" trick, and the simpler version "reboot". But, now I can't burn a third one...

I have tried the cleaning disc, compressed air in the disk slot, rebooting, using a mini fan to blow under & over the laptop to make sure it's not a heat issue, and have even tried burning from different accounts. I can burn DVDs, CDs, but not DVD-DL. :(

Any thoughts?

Scott