interface error: 5 the connection is not stable

I have the same problem still.... I cannot burn a DVD.

Do not think it's a hardware problem, if I use bootcamp with windows 7, I have no problem
via windows programs for ripping / burning.

That proves that Snow Leopard & Toast/Popcorn are having a conflict!

A follow up:
After a lot of 'testing' I have narrowed down the 'Interface error 5...' problem as an issue between Toast 9/10 and the GA11N (probably firmware) under OS 10.6.2.

1.Using Toast 9/10 under OS 10.5.8 with a (late 2008) MPB (GS21N drive) DVD burning is successful.

2. Using Toast 10 and OS 10.6.2, and the stock internal drive in the iMac (GA11N), DVD's cannot be burned without the 'Interface 5 error....'.

3. Using Toast 10 and OS 10.6.2 to create Video-TS folders and then to burn these using either the OS (Finder) Burn, or DVDRemaster Pro, with the GA11N drive is successful.

4. Using Toast 10 and OS 10.6.2 with an external DVD drive (OWC Mercury Pro) is successful.

The issue is then between Toast and the GA11N drive under OS 10.6.2 and is probably a firmware compatibility problem. As to which company bears the responsibility I have no idea

The issue is then between Toast and the GA11N drive under OS 10.6.2 and is probably a firmware compatibility problem. As to which company bears the responsibility I have no idea

That was an intensive test.

I am sure that both companies will say "not our product".

??? Are you Kidding barabara?

Use only high quality brands media.
Burn at the slowest speed available.
Turn off your screen saver, sleep, etc. options before burning.
Do not use any other application while burning.

I don't want to burn DVD's at the slowest speed!
I bought the new iMac because it's FAST!

Come on guys at Apple... Solve this PROBLEM

Message was edited by: Host

PS: i lost 26 DVD's trying all the non-sense advised in this Forum and updating to the latest versions of Toast and system updates..... it's 2 months NOW!!!!

Will somebody acknowledge the problem and DO SOMETHING... ROXIO ??? APPLE ??

I want to BURN DVD's without an ERROR 5, fast and on any DVD media with applications running etc. ... Never had problems like this. WORK ON IT!

I too have lost many dvd's trying out various solutions, seems ridiculous that so many have this problem and there is no fix for it, roxio is who I blame, as stuff works ok from the finder, but the I need Toasts functionality, and that Burn program has locked up on me a few times (at least it did so before making a coaster)

However, apple must have changed something in the architecture for this to happen now with toast...

I too have the same issue. And, after reviewing everyone's comments... I'm totally confused.
How's this for a monkey wrench in the mix.

I purchased 2 new Mac's in December.
1 iMac Quad and another Macbook Pro 15" both running OSX 10.6.2 and Toast 10.0.5.

On both Macs I can successfully burn cd's and dvd's across multiple media every time (so far).
but on both units with an External Pioneer BD-RW BDR-205 Blu-Ray burner connected via USB, I am able to burn DVD's fine but get the interface error: 5 the connection is not stable every time when attempting to burn CD's...

So as for me this lends itself to look like a hardware problem with the external burner, but when reading many of your posts several are reporting issues with their internal drives...?

Interestingly! When I uncheck Enable Buffer Under-run Prevention and run in simulation mode, it reports success, but when burning, with Enable Buffer Under-run Prevention unchecked, I get the error 50% of the time and then am able to burn the other 50%. Especially if I simulate first and then drop down in burn speed...

I think it is Toast and Apple that need to take responsibility together and work hand-in-hand to find the cause...

Go figure?

At first i thought it was just my iMac 3.06GHz but then reading six and counting pages of troubles with the internal burner and TOAST i am even more angry.

I have spent a lot of money ( the same as you good people ) not only for the iMac and TOAST 10.5 and now i find myself going back to my old creaky QS G4 to burn without wasting CD/DVD media. Albeit they are not that expensive these days never the less when 5 or more burns ( especially those dual layer disks ) fail that becomes costly.

Of course apple could not care less because no doubt they have some shares in Verbatum or Memorex or what ever CD/DVD media.

Any ways, in TOAST under Utilities menu what does "create temporary partition" have to do with burning a CD or DVD.

Lately I have been changing those numbers depending if i burn a CD or DVD and without positive proof i am getting clean burns with no interface 5 errors.

Comments on setting temporary partition please. The read me manual was not helpful for me although most of the time i have very little patience in reading those manuals thoroughly .

Yesterday i was burning a disk ( TOAST 10.5 ) from an image and the burn failed PLUS the DVD-
R would not eject.

Tried:

pressing eject button on keyboard, selecting eject from TOAST, eject from Apple Disk Utilities, restart holding mouse down: nothing the disk would not eject.

Connected my external FW drive with OS 10.5 and when it finished loading i pressed the eject button on the keyboard and NOW THE DISK EJECTED.

NOW i am leaning in the direction that the SnowLeopard OS is somewhat flakey because it seems that i have no problems with Leopard from my external FW drive.

No solid proof but that's what i have found.

I am having the same issue ("connection not stable") when burning any type of file to either CD or DVD using Toast 10 Titanium. When I use disk utility to burn, everything works fine. I really wish one of the two companies would offer some sort of fix for this issue. Would using an external burner help the situation? I am hesitant to go out and buy one until I'm sure it'll do the trick.

See my post on 18Jan/10: An external burner is consistently successful for me.

I wish one of the companies would just officially say who's at fault.

If it's Roxio, then why doesn't Apple weigh in on the matter and say that they have no reported problems with the GA11N drive when Apple software is used to do the burning, if that's the case.

And if it's Apple, why doesn't Roxio make a statement on their website acknowledging the problem and that they "suspect" that it's a firmware issue.

Either way, it would be nice if one of the companies would at least let us users know that they are in communication with one another and that they're working on the problem.

No wonder we're still running OS X 10.5 at my office. How long has Snow Leopard been out now? I can't believe how many problems I'm still experiencing -- from font activation problems to issues with my CS4 apps. If I needed my iMac to make a living I would have downgraded to 10.5 for sure. Is Apple turning into the new Microsoft?

See this article:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8646.html

Unless you want to use some common sense instead of making deriding remarks about my earlier suggestions, you will not find an answer to your problem.

Although I prefer to use my external burner, as a test - and following Apple's (and my) common sense suggestions - I just successfully burned both a DVD and a CD on 10.6.2, using Toast 10.0.2 and the internal burner. No errors. No skips. No coaster. They just work. Of course, I burned my own material and did not try to rip or copy copyrighted material.

From my understanding, this seems to primarily be an issue with the late 2009 model iMacs (21.5 and 27 inch models) with internal GA11N drives -- at least that's what caused this thread to be started in the first place, way back in November. I guess the biggest issue here is that people are having problems right out of the box and there doesn't appear to be any solutions coming anytime soon. Or even an acknowledgement that there is a problem to begin with from either parties.