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William Waletitsch

Q: Failure to calibrate laser power level?

I am having some difficulty burning music cds. The "failed to calibrate the laser power level" message comes up after checking media, preparing titles, and ejects disc. I have tried both Memorex Music discs and TDK Music discs. I have used both brands succesfully in the past, many times.

I got the same message when I've tried to archive photos from iPhoto using imation cd-rw discs.

Is there another test I can run on my burner (MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-845E)? I did run TechTool with no reported errors. Or is this one for the Apple shop?

thanks for any suggestions.

PowerBookG4, Choose, 17"

Posted on Aug 6, 2007 2:54 AM

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Q: Failure to calibrate laser power level?

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  • by macfb,

    macfb macfb Apr 9, 2009 12:49 PM in response to William Waletitsch
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Apr 9, 2009 12:49 PM in response to William Waletitsch
    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
  • by Vagabundo23,

    Vagabundo23 Vagabundo23 Apr 18, 2009 12:51 PM in response to William Waletitsch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 18, 2009 12:51 PM in response to William Waletitsch
    I have the same problem Fail to calibrate lase power level. I solve this restarting my macbook.
  • by Waiting4nAngel,

    Waiting4nAngel Waiting4nAngel May 3, 2009 2:39 PM in response to Vagabundo23
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 3, 2009 2:39 PM in response to Vagabundo23
    Add me up as well. I used to work at the Genius Bar, and at Best Buy as the "Apple Expert" and I can't even figure this one out.

    I took it as far as trying all of the above mentioned methods, and even reformatted my drive back to Tiger to see if it was a ghost related to Leopard, but that proved nothing - I'm now back on a fresh installation of 10.5.6 and it's still doing it, >.<

    It's driving me nuts, hopefully someone will figure it out soon. I'm about to just switch up to my Ubuntu install and test that one... if it still does it, then it can't be the drive.
  • by David Ross,

    David Ross David Ross Jun 6, 2009 1:20 PM in response to William Waletitsch
    Level 1 (124 points)
    Jun 6, 2009 1:20 PM in response to William Waletitsch
    Air blast worked for me. Burning a test DVD as we speak.
  • by Joanne Cunningham,

    Joanne Cunningham Joanne Cunningham Jul 9, 2009 12:27 PM in response to David Ross
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Jul 9, 2009 12:27 PM in response to David Ross
    I add another vote for the compressed air! Haven't burned a DVD in ages, but went to burn one last night... iDVD went through all the encoding, then ejected the disk when it tried to write. I made a disc image and tried to burn from Disk Utility - that's when I got the "can't calibrate laser power level" error.

    I rebooted, reset pram, repaired permissions, installed all available system updates, then called Applecare. They had me reset the smc (unplugging everything for ~15 seconds), then connect only the keyboard and trying again. I also tried burning it from another user account and by creating a burn folder in the finder. No luck. The guy said it sounded like a faulty drive and made me an appointment at the Apple Store tomorrow to have a Genius check it out.

    In the meantime I stumbled across this thread, and guess what? The crappy little can of compressed air that's been sitting in my office for about 5 years worked! I stuck the attachment in the drive, gave it a good couple of blasts and tried again. Worked great on a test project I burned. I'm trying again on the original project I tried last night.

    Don't despair, try the air! LOL
  • by Tunnuz,

    Tunnuz Tunnuz Jul 19, 2009 3:43 AM in response to William Waletitsch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 19, 2009 3:43 AM in response to William Waletitsch
    Same problem here. Tried the spray duster, tried the Language trick. I guess the problem is both a firmware/software problem and a dust problem. I can now burn sometimes a DVD, always CDs, but nothing more. Most of the times it just fails calibrating. I downloaded the smcFanControl tool and I'm now cooling my MBP, it was 45 °C before starting, and it is now 36°-38°, i hope this will solve the issue.
  • by Zombie Mutation,

    Zombie Mutation Zombie Mutation Jul 24, 2009 12:50 PM in response to William Waletitsch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 24, 2009 12:50 PM in response to William Waletitsch
    I lacked compressed air, had same sort of problems unable to calibrate laser and disc error 800....., so just blew hard into the disc slot on my Mac, and after it worked straight off.

    Message was edited by: Zombie Mutation
  • by Woody10460,

    Woody10460 Woody10460 Jul 27, 2009 10:14 PM in response to William Waletitsch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 27, 2009 10:14 PM in response to William Waletitsch
    New MacBook Pro-three weeks, couldn't believe when I couldn't burn anything. 12 hours of troubleshooting, was going to send the thing back. I was sure the drive was faulty. I placed first aid freezer bags under the computer to cool it. Apparently even the spinning of the drive heats it up so it can't burn,"Failure to calibrate laser power". The computer melts them pretty fast, so you need a few around, a freezerful for a couple of copies.
  • by Dimabeny,

    Dimabeny Dimabeny Aug 17, 2009 9:52 PM in response to haitchlee
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 17, 2009 9:52 PM in response to haitchlee
    OK just to let everyone here know, this crazy method of putting something under the mac to keep it at an angle actually works.
  • by antollinim,

    antollinim antollinim Aug 24, 2009 12:47 PM in response to William Waletitsch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 24, 2009 12:47 PM in response to William Waletitsch
    After trying all the things that you all have mentioned with no luck, I have finally being able to burn a problematic DVD-DL with my macbook. How? I installed Nero Express 9 in my Bootcamped Windows and burned it at 2X.

    I tried the same thing with Parallels but did not work either. So I guess the issue is a Mac OS driver problem; since the drive works OK in native Windows.
  • by Vincenzo Della Mea,

    Vincenzo Della Mea Vincenzo Della Mea Aug 27, 2009 2:27 AM in response to William Waletitsch
    Level 2 (175 points)
    Aug 27, 2009 2:27 AM in response to William Waletitsch
    I add a vote for compressed air. Before that I tried SMC reset and, as a desperate, also the magic International trick, which of course did not succed. Compressed air solved the problem in 2 seconds.
  • by DOMZE,

    DOMZE DOMZE Aug 27, 2009 9:52 PM in response to Vincenzo Della Mea
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 27, 2009 9:52 PM in response to Vincenzo Della Mea
    Followed what a user had posted, and it worked!
    Dismantled my Macbook Pro, and cleaned the superdrive lens with Isoprophyl alcohol

    Guide at:
    http://muzso.hu/2008/08/17/how-to-clean-the-lens-of-a-slot-loading-optical-drive -a-macbook-pros-superdrive
  • by David Ross,

    David Ross David Ross Sep 1, 2009 2:45 PM in response to William Waletitsch
    Level 1 (124 points)
    Sep 1, 2009 2:45 PM in response to William Waletitsch
    I was having this issue.

    I tried all the tips from blowing air to switching languages(!!!!??????)

    I switched DVD media and all is good now. Already burned about 6 DVDs. No errors.

    I was using Memorex but switched to Staples own brand. I also changed the speed from max to 8.
  • by sh1znack,

    sh1znack sh1znack Oct 6, 2009 3:55 PM in response to William Waletitsch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 6, 2009 3:55 PM in response to William Waletitsch
    First, Disk Utility threw a "Cannot calibrate laser" error. Then, as time went on, it started to say that my discs were incompatible (even when using discs of the same pack that I'd previously burned).

    PROBLEM: dusty lens/eye
    SOLUTION: canned air

    It worked immediately after a few long sprays.

    Message was edited by: sh1znack
  • by Danny1996,

    Danny1996 Danny1996 Oct 6, 2009 9:04 PM in response to yangguo47
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 6, 2009 9:04 PM in response to yangguo47
    Seriously... This is CRAZY!
    It started with my Powerbook... So I just started burning CDs on my wife's iMac. Then it started happening on her iMac, so I started burning everything on my Mac Mini.... and now it's happening on that one too. "Failed to calibrate the laser power level...." So, I've got three macs and can't burn anything on ANY of them! Seriously... is there no answer to this problem??? It has got to be an OS issue...

    HELP!!!
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