"the burn failed because of a medium write error"

Same issues in iTunes and Finder. 10.4 all was OK, 10.5 not.

DVD's burn fine but CD's have the medium error as well as unable calibrate laser power errors.

This just started happening to me yesterday...I lowered burnspeed to 16x...seemed to help.

I am SO glad to have discovered this thread as this happened to me after I upgraded iTunes -- won't burn a CD. I thought the CD player was shot which was a bummer since it is just OUT of warranty.

Then I visited my father and HE is having the same issues after upgrading iTunes.

I realized that it has to be a software issue related to the upgrade because two problems occurring on the same day is too much of a coincidence -- and the CD/DVD hardware still reads CD's without problems.

Is there any kind of fix?

This just happened to me as well, after upgrading to OS X 10.4.11. I reduced my burnspeed to 16X, and it seems to work just fine, albeit a little slower obviously.

hi

i'm having a similar problem, only this past week, on a barely two month old macbook.

cds i've use before fine now just don't work, iphoto etc. all burn fine with half the noise and whir itunes is making.

changing the speed works sporadically but the problem still occurs.

does apple know about this problem? is it a mac osx or itunes problem?

after spending the money we shouldn't really have to be compromising on lower speeds.

any help?

Tried sneaking speed up to 20x...OK, then 24x...more fails.

I'm also having this same problem. I will try lowering the speed to 16x.

I'm getting this using iPhoto to burn photos onto a DVD - already wasted 3 DVD's. Pretty lame problem to have for Apple's easy to use mentality. Has anyone come up with a fix? I am going to mess with the burn speed, but am not looking forward to wasting more DVD's...

I've gotten the 'medium write error' and the 'failed to calibrate lazer power' or whatever it is. I also have the 'please insert blank disk' occasionally when I KNOW it's a blank disk. Then when I insert another disk, it'll just keep 'checking media' then spit the disk out. If I restart the machine, I can burn ONE disk. Second disk I try to burn will give me any of these 3 messages.

I seriously hope this is just an issue that will be taken care of with the next software update, and I hope that's soon!

If the burn speed has been changed, try it on x4 or x8
a lower speed has a better chance of burning
if that works, bump it up to what still works

Yes, basically we are sacrificing speed right now. I had no problems whatsoever with burning until the last software update.

I changed the speed and that didn't even work for me. Kind of a bummer.

Well, now the burns at 16x are failing, and I am down to 8x for burns. This really *****! Apple, why hast thou forsaken us?

This is getting ridiculous now... with so many threads and posts on here re a post iTunes or Leopard install causing a seeming failure or limited of CD and DVD burning, you'd think Apple would come clean and admit or fix it already.

I've not been able to burn any CD's or DVD's since either 10.5 or the latest iTunes install.

I've tried everything suggested on the various Apple support forums and my MBP of course is just outside of its warranty now too.

thank you! i switched mine from maximum speed to 16x speed and it worked great, kept quiet, and saved me lost CDs:)