failed disc burn

Question

failed disc burn

"The attempt to burn a disc failed. The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media."

I am getting this message when trying to burn to Maxell CD-R 80min 700MB cd's. I have slowed the burn speed down to 1x, and I guess I can experiment with burn speeds, but I've never had this problem before. Any comments on Maxell CD's? Any suggestions for best "Preferred Burn Speed" setting?

iMac G5 1.8, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 1 GB RAM

Posted on Apr 17, 2008 12:24 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

PT

Level 7

20,888 points

Apr 17, 2008 1:06 PM in response to Dan Bergstrom

First thing to do is trying burning a CD OUTSIDE of iTunes and see if you get the same problem. If you do, then it isn't iTunes but your media or your drive.
Next try different media.
Patrick

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Answer 2

Apr 17, 2008 1:55 PM in response to Dan Bergstrom

Greetings,

I'm having the same problem. I've run the hardware diagnostic tool from the OSX install disc but it didn't find any problems with my hardware (Not sure if that means anything though).

I'll try burning outside of iTunes but I would love any other suggestions.

Thank you,

Mohbology

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Answer 3

Apr 19, 2008 4:14 PM in response to Dan Bergstrom

Buy Roxio Toast and try x8 burn speed

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Answer 4

Apr 20, 2008 11:31 PM in response to Dan Bergstrom

I'm having the same problem, but with the TDK discs. What's interesting is that I could burn the first disc, but no subsequent discs. It does see the disc as blank, but I get the same laser error. I also tried slowing down the burn speed, no help.

The suggestion to try burning somewhere else is pretty lame, I have no where else to try to burn. My guess is that the disc burner needs to "rest". I'll try again in the morning.

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Answer 5

Apr 21, 2008 9:28 PM in response to PT

Burning a data CD is not a problem. It seems to be some kind of function involving the brand of CD and the burn speed. It just stinks to drop $10-$20 on a stack of CD's to find that they don't work, or at least not very well. Also disturbing is having one brand work and not another.

(I guess I'm still stinging from the iTunes "upgrade" (v7?) that caused my faithful iMac G3 graphite to loose the ability to burn CD's altogether. I love my mac's, but Apple tests my loyalty when they make decent older machines obsolete. Now they are making my iBook G4 obsolete. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!)

I should not need to spend money on other software (e.g. Roxio) to do something as simple as burn a CD in the bragged about iTunes. $1,500 ought to buy me that.

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Answer 6

LadyQuig

Level 1

0 points

May 13, 2008 12:22 PM in response to Dan Bergstrom

Dan Bergstrom????
Wow... care to send me an email? - <Edited by Moderator>

Kind regards,
Cathy Quigley

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Answer 7

May 23, 2008 3:28 PM in response to LadyQuig

From what I can gather, and I'm getting the same problem that you guys are getting, it's a iTunes ver. 7.6 problem. I haven't been able to burn a CD since I d/l the new version of iTunes.

They need to fix it fast.

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Answer 8

May 24, 2008 9:34 AM in response to Dan Bergstrom

yea after testing Memorex, Dynex, AND NOW MAXELL, NONE of those CD's work for me. They don't even show up in my Itunes...

is there anyway to possibly download a older version of Itunes and burn off of that possibly?...

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Answer 9

tombirdd

Level 1

0 points

May 27, 2008 11:12 AM in response to Dan Bergstrom

I am getting the same error message 'failure to calibrate laser power level for this media'. I got one successful burn out of about 8-10 attempts using Phillips CD-R Music. I hope Apple or someone comes up with a solution soon.

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Answer 10

Jun 21, 2008 6:25 PM in response to tombirdd

I wound up taking my MBP to the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store. I couldn't burn a CD, watch a DVD or play a game on CD.

They tested my MBP and said I needed a new Super Drive. Two days later, I can now do all that I couldn't.

Might be worth a trip to the Genius Bar..

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Answer 11

Jun 22, 2008 9:17 PM in response to Dan Bergstrom

I recently started having the "failed burn" problem, but it told me that it was faulty media without any mention of the laser power level, except the day before (I have gone through 7 failed burn discs, now) it was burning with the same CD make just fine. It burned a couple after a permissions repair and update, failed a burn, burned another two after reboots, and now will only spit failed burns back out at me. Is it a problem with the Itunes update, my CD/DVD burner/drive, or my CD's?

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Answer 12

Jun 23, 2008 2:52 PM in response to A Brandtjen

You know, I couldn't say. My first question would be, have you tried burning different manufactured cd's(Fuji, Sony, Memorex, etc...? How about trying to watch a DVD..is your Mac capable of that now?

I tried all sorts of different manufacturers of CD's before just giving up and taking my MBP in.

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Answer 13

Jun 23, 2008 6:22 PM in response to newsshooter

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You are the Genius. Couldn't load a blank CD and took it to the Genius Bar. They suggested a new super drive. Now it works fine. Usually I would spend days trying to get stuff to work, but thanks to you I am back in business the same day. They had the part/drive and installed it in just hours. Went in at 2pm. Pick up the computer at 6 the same day. Way to go Apple!

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Answer 14

tombirdd

Level 1

0 points

Jul 5, 2008 1:05 PM in response to Dan Bergstrom

Problem solved for me anyway. I took some advice from some of you and other experts and tried experimenting with burn speed. My original setting was 'maximum possible'. I tried 8 and got 2 successful burns out of 2 tries. I went to 12 and got one but at 16 it failed, went back to 12 and failed again but at 8 again it works! All this is with Philips CD-R music discs which I have now run out of . I bought Memorex CD-R which I will try next. What does all this mean? I assume the fastest speed is best but I cannot detect any quality problems with a burn speed of 8.

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Answer 15

Jul 6, 2008 10:17 AM in response to Dan Bergstrom

Same problem here. My Super drive has always been flakey, but since the most recent upgrade of iTunes, I cannot seem to burn at any speed. When I burn a disk, it starts normally, the first track name shows up for split second then it immediately goes into "finishing" mode, followed by a media error...every single time. I reinsert the disk into the drive and the OS tells me its still blank. Big problems!!!

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