Failed to calibrate Laser?

This generally indicates a problem with the blank DVD media - slot-loading drives are a bit finicky. This is sometimes seen with 'generic' blank discs. What brand of discs are you using? Try a brand like Maxell, Imation, or Verbatim.

The Mac Pro uses a tray loading drive; if it's a newer iMac (they use slot-loaders like the portables), then I'd say no, it may be a problem with the drive (I'd try another disc from the batch, though you've probably already done that).

This might come a bit late 🙂

But most of the "cannot calibrate laser" I have seen are due to dust accumulating on the lens. Try using compressed air, a 2 second blow inside the drive bay should do it.

Message was edited by: Mactrix

Seconded! Happened to me more than once. I have one of those cleaning discs with the bristles on it, which, coincidentally, also happens to play music to soothe my frazzled nerves as it cleans. 🙂

Yang

+also happens to play music to soothe my frazzled nerves as it cleans.+

That's a nice touch 🙂

Where can I get cleaning disk like that?

Hi sig,

I bought the Philips cleaner off Amazon (UK), initially for my DVD player (it's a single-purpose DVD lens cleaner, rather than an all-purpose one), but it worked a treat on my MacBook Pro when I needed it to -- thankfully.

Yang

PS, The added musical touch wasn't a factor in the purchase decision. More like a bonus. 😉

I am getting this with a TDK dual layer (+R DL)on a MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-85J:. Also running the 10.5.7 upgrade which seems to have caused several other slooo downs on start up. Is TDK one of the dodgy makes? Should I get a cleaning disc?

I stick with Verbatim media it seems the most consistent and reliable.

The best cleaner is the Allsop Ultra it has eight high-quality brushes.

iDefrag works a treat. Try a complete defrag via Firewire bootable hard drive!

Check out this post:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1818377&start=0&tstart=0

Same problem here. CDs are burned without problems, for DVDs (several brands, Verbatim, TDK) the device fails to calibrate the laser power.

I have read that using a lens cleaning CD is not an option since it could scratch the lens, so I opted for the compressed air beams as someone suggested, now it works, sometimes (especially with extremely low speed rates), but other times even if calibration goes well and burning arrives to 100% errors are shown to happen at the end. Is there any suggestion from Apple itself?

Seems like a very common problem.

Oh, yes, and it started after 10.7.

I started getting the error code on DVD write:
"cant calibrate the laser for this media"
Apple care had no solution other then send in the computer for repair.
I tried this and it worked like a charm.
Wrap a credit card with your standard disposable eye glasses cleaner.
I use "wipe 'n clear" from Costco.
Feed it into the slot on the left side (remember lens is underneath).
A few passes in and out about 3 inches cleaned the lens and presto
works like new.

Thank you sooooooooo much, this worked great, potentially save lots of time and $$$