Burner - device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media.

I got this error message - tried the language fix, tried the compressed air fix - all to no avail. BUT

Check your naming policy for the DVD - no spaces, no unusual characters - I had same issue trying to burn a DVD named Leonard Cohen Live in London (for my Dad!)

Too many characters - too many spaces. Reduced the DVD name to Leonard_Cohen and off it went. We have got lazy - once upon a time all files had to be named in accordance with standard convention. Remember those days anyone?

I think the error message we are getting is a generic one meaning "There is something wrong with the burn session - can't tell you what exactly" (Seem to remember a few non-helpful error messages in my old MS days!)

Compressed air worked, however.....it took several attempts with the compressed air -- the first 3 or 4 times it failed, but it finally worked!! yaaa

Credit card wrapped in iPhone cleaning cloth. Insert several times over length of slotloader of MBP. That is all.

Compressed air worked for the "cannot calibrate laser" error on my MBP.
But only when I used the little straw and stuck it in the slot.
Thanks to all who posted this solution.

Thanks so much for the compressed air idea. Worked like a charm.

idnapper's idea worked for me, excellent, thanks!

MacBook Pro Mid 2009 and this morning I wanted to burn a DVD (no movie, just a family video)
and I got this: "The disc can’t be burned, because the device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media."

After some swearing I googled it, got the 2nd result and came here only to try the above mentioned credit card wrapped with iPhone/screen/glasses cleaner and worked like a charm.

High tech solutions!

Thanks idnapper!

Compressed can O Air worked! .... must be dusty in there.... O.o?!

Woohoo! Had the same problem with Snow Leopard install disk on my macbook pro but not with my imac, came here and read about the compressed air and it also worked for me 😀 Two good shots of air and the disk was readable.

Thanks for sharing a great solution. I was worried I'd have to replace my super drive.

My MacPro just started doing this tonight. It's about 4 years old and is running on Snow Leopard. All software is up to date.

Getting the same error message, but, a CD work, and a DL DVD worked. I have some printed DVDs that I bought from WTS Media, and I'm about halfway through an order of 300 and suddenly they're not. I thought it might be the media, but it works on my laptop (MacBook Pro).

Have NO idea what to do. I've tried the compressed air a couple of times, but I'll try it again. The discrepancies between what will work on one computer but not the other has me baffled.

tried the compressed air at least 5 times. nothing. tried 3 different brands of DVD lens cleaning kits. nothing.

did the language thing, restarted, and voila. works.

I burn a lot of DVDs for clients, so this is great news. I read earlier in this thread to not burn at maximum speed if you burn a lot, because it wears the lasers down faster. don't know if that's the case, but i'm not going to take any chances.

thanks for all of the replies and suggestions. truly.

s

oh, one more thing: don't look at it while it's burning.

Wow! Compressed air - thank you so much! I was beginning to get worried that I'd have to spend a lot of money on some repairs! 🙂

COMPRESSED AIR WORKED!

I'm planning to go out and buy a can of compressed air this afternoon (hoping it works!), but can someone tell me why burning works fine when I switch over to the Windows partition on Bootcamp? It's the same hardware. Makes me a little less optimistic that the compressed air will work for me. 😟

Will try it, though, and post back my results.