Failure to calibrate laser power level?

I want to add that I have tried resetting the system management controller and it had no affect.

Also tried creating another user account and burning from there, no luck. Saw that mentioned in a few places as something to try. Some folks have also said something about changing the language of the system, sounds obviously bogus and unrelated to the issue at hand.

I've successfully burned (going on my 3rd dvd) at 2x. Can't seem to burn any faster than that without the problem popping up. Hope this info helps someone out. I'm calling Apple first thing in the morning and I'm going to return the MacBook if I need to because I'm concerned about the problem and the long term life I can expect to get out of this $2100 investment. This is the second Mac I've owned, the last one was well worth the money, this machine has made a bad first impression for me on their intel line. Luckily I just bought it on friday so I should have no problem getting a full refund if I decide to go that route and hopefully someone from apple will read this thread and see all the problems people seem to be having out of these SuperDrive devices and maybe do something to address it. I personally expect little more than the machine to work as expected and I would call the laptop a lemon but I've seen so many people with this problem I just don't understand how there can be no known solutions for it. Hardware or not, this issue has been going on (as far as I can tell) since January of 2008 and for it to still exist on brand new hardware is disappointing to say the least. Anyway, I'm done with my rant and I hope they fix me up because I really like the new laptop.

I have the same issue. It is related to the 10.5.3 upgrade, prior to that everything was fine!

Happy to say that blowing compressed air from a can into the slot did the trick for my PBG4. Thankfully I didn't spend a lot of time trying other fixes.

I was having the same problem as everyone else here ('laser power level' burn error on DL discs).

The only solution that works for me is simple, but brutal, which implies the problem on my end is very likely software-related:

1. Dust off old FireWire drive. Re-initialize if needed.
2. Install 10.4 on FW drive (no updates).
3. Boot off FW drive.
4. Use Disk Utility on new system to burn one dual layer DVD.
5. Reboot on old system.
6. Re-initialize FW drive.
7. Install 10.4 on FW drive (no updates).
8. Repeat as needed.

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.

USE A BURNING SOFTWARE NOT iTunes
Toast

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.