Failure to calibrate laser power level?

yes..I began having this problem today..When I try to burn a cd -R (memorex) I get the message: "The attempt to burn a disc failed. The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media" It is a very hot day...and it worked intermittently..I followed the instructions to change the language, and rebooted after which it appeared to then burn the disc, but then itunes unexpectedly quits. I tried putting the old settings back. I have been able to make 4 cd's since this happened..I have just put a small cookie rack under the mac mini...it is a hot day..like record breaking heat..Has anyone contacted Apple with this problem? I mean..has anybody written Apple support?

There are a couple of points that need to be mentioned here.
This is a 2 fold problem,
1st if a speck of any dust gets on your lens then you have a problem with the calibration of laser power level error message. Compressed air is the way to go to fix this short of taking it in and having it worked on.
2nd there seems to be No Earthly way to impress on users that many of the Media Manufactures produce sub standard Media. Next it is important to note that buying the larger spools seems to be more of a problem than not.
CD's and DVD's are mass produced and the cheaper brands can be a huge issue in some Optical Drive units.
I find that using my drive a lot seems to help.
Using the highest quality media you can buy is also a +
I find that buying Media that is individually wrapped in there own Jewel Cases is also a +
I, like many of you, have suffered from these issues until I did a couple of things to improve my results.
There is such a big difference in the Quality of the Media the first tip is to read the packaging.
Read and you will see that chooseing media that says it will burn at 1X, 2X, 4X, 8X, and 16X will save you a ton of money by not producing what we call Coaster's, or junk.
Using the Quality Media Guide will help as well.
http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm
Using this guide to buying top quality media, I find works for both CD's and DVD's.
Remember that not all Optical Drives are created equal.
Make sure you keep your System UP TO DATE by using the Software Update Feature, this will insure that you have the latest Firmware Updates from Apple.
Next check often with your Optical Drive's Manufacture as well to be sure that you have there latest fixes, and updates.
Following the above suggestions will more often than not solve the majority of problems.
There is much much more, but I won't bore you with the reading that most users won't bother with anyway because they just want everything to work when they put media in there drives.

Hi,

I had this problem and came across the most random solution ( http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=77414):

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.

I don't have a clue why this works but it did for me (although some of the people in the forum hadn't had any luck trying this method).

Hope it works!


-Mark

Simple fix to correct this issue (Worked on my laptop and 5 others). Lift up the front of the laptop. Place your thumb and pinky finger under the left edge of the computer and the other three fingers on top of the computer...or wedge something small but the same height under the left corner. The issue is with heat dissipation and the front mounting of the superdrive. It sounds like a dumb fix and you will look silly doing it, but it works. Another solution is to buy a laptop cooler pad.

I have to agree with the suggestions that overheating is at least one cause of the "failure to calibrate laser" error.
Here was my experience just 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.
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. Fans remained running for the duration of the burn.

If cranking the fans works for others, perhaps Apple can patch the SuperDrive drivers to cool off some models before burn starts...

Right now after losing any chance to burn a simply DVD many weeks ago, i upgraded my MBP 2.2ghz to MacOsX 10.5.4 and iTunes 7.7.1.
Nothing! It's not a problem of cheapest DVD or dust on it, stressed or extra-used DVD-ROM , it simpy doesn't work! Disc Utility , iTunes, Toast 8/9 it's the same.
Sometimes it happened also when burning CDRom's.
As i remember i used to burn DVD only 5 times on this new MBP.
It reads very well CDs,DVDs, no problem using it.
As posted by other people, there's an incredibile heat inside MBP case after only 4-5 minutes with a cd/dvd rom playing but i don't know if this is the "killer".
Anyway on my external Pioneer DVD (only 40 euro not 200E as for a superdrive) all works well,
Next time , dear Apple, i prefer on my mac, as in the past for slowwww/freezing floppy disk readers, internal modems,1h batteries, another unseful internal "hot" device like our "matshita".
MacBook Air means this?

Hi all,

I got the same error 3 times when burning pictures from iPhoto (from default SuperDrive MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-845E for MBP 15"). Decided to move the burning speed to 4x (instead of default Max 8x) and now (one more try) it burnt it.

Seems like a simple solution so I hope it helps others.

I found this on this web site, I tried it and it worked for me....

Hi,

I had this problem and came across the most random solution ( http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=77414):

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. MPW

I had this problem with my G5 iMac trying to burn a Data DVD in iTunes 8. I solved it by manually setting the write speed from "Maximum possible" to "4x". It worked.

My guess is that the OS is not interpreting "Maximum possible" correctly for DVDs here. That may be what the OS X 10.5.5 update is for. But, I need to burn the DVD to archive some files to make room for the update.

I posted a topic in the forum for PB G4 15" about my CD/DVD drive not being able to burn - and somebody reading that topic referred me to this topic.

I have the same problem on two Mac laptops - a PB G4 15" (a few years old) and a MacBook Pro 17" (less than six months old). When I try to burn a CD, I get the dialog box about not being able to calibrate the laser - on both computers.

I have spent many hours over the past three days trying every bit of advice I have received from the forums, and nothing has solved the problem.

I purchased 3-year AppleCare for the MBP, and I have an appointment to get the drive replaced on that. 🙂

I think the only reasonable solution for the PB G4 will be to buy an external optical drive. It looks to me like both drives have failed.

Add me to the list of users having problems with "calibrating the laser power level." This problem has had me frustrated for nearly 4 months now on my Macbook Pro, both for burning DVDs and CDs. Here were the solutions I tried that others have gotten to work:

1. Changing the writing speed. This seemed to work for the first few CD's, but then it didn't work any longer.

2. Restarting the computer. This also would work for me, if I left the writing speed down and restarted the computer, then it would write one CD, but no more. Eventually, this option didn't work either.

3. Changing the weird "International" and "Language" settings. This did not work for me. I am still not convinced that this is a real solution, but it doesn't hurt trying. In fact I tried setting it to many different options, all to no avail.

4. Compressed air. I just put the tip of a compressed air tube in my superdrive, let it rip, and swept back and forth horizontally to blow off the entire drive (I'm not sure where the laser actually is). This has proven to be SUCCESSFUL. I am currently burning a DVD with Disk Utility. I will continue to try burning a CD with iTunes and a DVD with iDVD, and edit this post with an update. One time I had a stereo system with a CD player, and since it was 3-4 years old, it wouldn't play CD's anymore. I opened the CD player (normally) and just wiped off the lens of the laser. It then played CD's fine. I believe dust is a major hinderance to laser power, especially since lasers are just condensed light, basically. But I'm no light saber Harvard student, so I'm not sure. But hey. IT WORKS. Thank God. Finally.

Hi. The Language thing worked last night (burning DVD)
I tried to burn a CD this time (no more DVD left on me) but didn't work.
I went through the language method again, but still the same.
I don't know if it's because I put a CD in, not a DVD? The issue occurred since I upgrade the OS (I'm not saying it is the reason though)

Hi. I recently started to get this error when trying to burn to CD -RW discs only, these are decent quality Verbatim branded. I have no problem burning to CD-R or DVD-R. I have an older PowerBook 15" which has no problem burning to the same CD-RW discs so the discs are not the problem. I figure it's either an optical drive fault or dust related. I have AppleCare but only want to send the unit away as a last resort.

I tried a couple of the suggestions here with no luck. *The solution in my case, also suggested here, was to buy a £6 can of Airduster high pressure aerosol spray from Maplin's.* A couple of short bursts through the drive slot and drive is sorted! I can now burn to CD-RW again!

Hope this helps someone else out.

Regards,

AppleMacGuyUK.

I just had a similar failure using Toast Titanium 8 under 10.5.6 on my MacBook Pro. When I went to the Finder to just burn the folder to a DVD-R, I got the dreaded "laser power" error. I tried a can of compressed air and now I was able to burn 1GB to a DVD-R. Thanks. -Rei