Failure to calibrate laser power level?

I have the same problem Fail to calibrate lase power level. I solve this restarting my macbook.

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.

Air blast worked for me. Burning a test DVD as we speak.

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

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.

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

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.

OK just to let everyone here know, this crazy method of putting something under the mac to keep it at an angle actually works.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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!!!

Spray canned air for about 5-10 seconds. It worked for me.