I get "error code 0x80020022" when I try to write to disc.

Same issue here, but I've had this before, 1st time was just after I had upgraded to Leopard, 2-3 weeks aft wards tried to burn disc but got the 'Cannot calibrate laser message' took it in for repair and they diagnosed optical drive being faulty and was replaced under warranty.

2nd time was March this year and again had upgraded to snow leopard but not used the DVD drive at all, but now needed to burn disc and found I had the 'Cannot calibrate message' and also found it would not read the Snow Leopard install DVD anymore, it would just hang spinning and was hit and miss getting it to eject disc' so booked it in and again told drive had failed but as now out of warranty cost me £70+ fitting to replace and drive has been fine and have been using superdrive and burning DVD's 2-3 times a month with no problems.

Now problem has returned for a 3rd time and basically I updated last Saturday to Lion, and gone to burn a disc tonight and got the 'Unable to calibrate laser error' so couldn't believe that having 3 different optical drives all used lightly and all failed (what are the odds of that for hitting the same person?)

Anyway been searching various apple forums as this error still comes up alot and again seems to be linked when people upgrade OS or some firmware update gets pushed out to Mac's, so tried some obscure solution someone gave and amazingly I no longer got the calibration error but now get the 0x80020022 which brought me here.

So just thought I'd let you know this problem has been around a long time and hopefully if your machine is out of warranty you don't get stiched up like i did last march with having to buy a new drive when in fact it's their software killing the drives

I tried permission fix's and most other things they said to try last time which didn't work then and still don't. So will be calling tomorrow to let them know new drive I bought has failed again, but this time drive is still under warranty so should get replaced FOC otherwise I think with all the post's now existing about this problem it's time to go to Tradign standard's and maybe a call to BBC's Watchdog (I now they love apple 🙂)

Ok, I've managed to fix all issues with my drive & this is what i did

to clear the communication error '0x80020022' I tried something which came about from the obscure fix which cleared the laser calibration but then gave me the communication error.

go to 'System Preferences' and open 'Language & Text' under 'Language' tab I de-ticked all languages apart from English & the 'Order for sorted lists' changed to Standard which i left as 'English' is not in the list of languages so assume that is the default for it.

Then under 'Formats' changed the 'Region' from 'United States (computer)' to 'United Kingdom' then exited out and it asked if i wanted to save which I did, then rebooted my Mac.

Now when I went to burn a disk it gave me the original error of 'Cannot calibrate laser' so bit more research and I found an article which mentioned about using an Airduster to blast out the Superdrive as these new Macbooks are fitted with an Optical drive that has very fine tolerances and so the smallest bit of dust will affect it, first attempt didn't seem to affect it but on second go I really went for it, powered Mac back up (wouldn't use duster while MBP is on as it can cause very cold frosted air to come out and possible short circuit if on)

Once desktop up inserted disk then dropped some files on and this time I could here it whirring up and it started to burn & completed A-OK, then for second test thought I would try something big so used Disk Utility to create a Lion bootable DVD which it has done and all Verifying checks out and works

very happy now and hope the above helps some others out seeing as the Genius's are clueless about this problem and will just try to sell you a new Optical Drive, whished I knew about this last March and saved myself £95

'Error 0x80020022' means basically the same as ''Cannot calibrate laser..'

Strange, I read about this fix last year with region/language Preferences changes and it was discovered that it was bogus. I would also strongly recommend that users DO NOT blast a load of air into the CD slot. The inside of your laptop is normally full of dust unfortunately (due to static electricity from the spinning fans and the incoming air is not filtered). Blasting air in will only dislodge and spread the dust around. It may temporarily fix the dirty lens, but not permanently. Doesn't it make better/more sense to purchase a good CD cleaning kit (from a reputable brand name) and try this first?

At any rate, this does not explain that when upgrading systems, the laser can no longer be calibrated. Does the system upgrade come with added dust? The system upgrade does not effect the firmware of the drive itself, only the EFI. The drive calibrates the laser as far as I know, not the 'system'. In some cases a drive firmware upgrade is necessary, but is not included with the OS upgrade disc. Find your drive model in System Profiler and check on the Apple site if you have the correct drive firmware for your hardware/OS configuration.

Comment: DVD/CDs should die a death and never return. They are obsolete (since 5 years at least), are not a reliable permanent storage medium, are wasteful, and take up too much space inside a laptop for their usefulness. It is a pity that Apple doesn't offer the internal drive as optional. I would prefer a second hard drive myself.

well i got the air duster tip from here http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10330068-263.html

and they state it is the supported method recommended by apple but using a disc cleaner is not,

so are you also quoting by what apple have told you to not use air duster as it has worked and the level of dust they state causes a problem is minimal and yes installing OS may have caused it as i installe from a DVD not direct download so by placing a disc in could well have dislogded some dust over to the writing heads.

forgot to put I've since been using my dvd writer all day and it's been working flawlessly and it is if anyhting much quiter and MBP hasn't caught on fire yet 😉

& drive/MBP has latest firmware etc.

I've done some further testing and research based on Silo's comments ealier and this is what I have found;

'Error 0x80020022' means basically the same as ''Cannot calibrate laser..'

Not true, for the following reasons 0x80020022 is stating within that message it is a communication failure and unless Apple have no grasp of the English language Unable to Calibrate has a different meaning so why use words with two different meaning to mean same issue? after searching the net for both errors it does appear to have different issues causing different end results.

Something also worth checking which has resolved communication failure as well is to choose a slower burn speed, but being communication could be it cannot read from hard disc as well as the common fix apple give out about repairing disc permissions probably falls under that error as well, and most annoying is that no error is generated within the logs for the either of the above.

Now as a test as to why my original error of 'Cannot calibrate laser' changed to 'Communication error' after I followed some instructions to re-organise my chosen languages order (not remove the ones I don't use) I returned this from removing them and setting back as default and amazingly the communication error came back, so I removed again as per what i posted earlier and it's working again, quite why changing this affects my DVD writer and Reading not sure, but assume possible obscure bug and without debugging the OS and drivers etc. I'm not going to find the cause to that.

Now this statement

'The inside of your laptop is normally full of dust unfortunately (due to static electricity from the spinning fans and the incoming air is not filtered). Blasting air in will only dislodge and spread the dust around. It may temporarily fix the dirty lens, but not permanently. Doesn't it make better/more sense to purchase a good CD cleaning kit (from a reputable brand name) and try this first?'

Fans generating static they would need to spin a lot faster than they do and again do you think any Computer manufacture would install Fans made from materials and also ones which then spin up fast enough to generate static especially within a metal cased computer? forgot to put they will be grounded so even if anyhting built up this woudl go harmlessly to earth.

I've also spoken to Apple today regarding using the Lens cleaner disc in a super drive and they are definitely not recommended as they told me they Jam up due to the drive being a slot loader, same as drive does not support those mini CD's.

I also checked the inside of my MBP (out of curiosity, of how much dust had built up inside) which is now 2 years old, and it is not full of dust only small specks and in certain places, especially so around the fan blades but that is expected and it is a very small amount, but air duster to the rescue again all dust now blown away, so in future when i get this issue I'm going to pop bottom cover and clean all as it took less than 10 minutes to remove cover, clean & replace cover and notebook back on and running.

So ok I agree it is a temporary fix, but the amount of canned air that was used was say 1%, so It's gonna last me a very long time and allow me to clean my drive multiple times per year as required and is so much cheaper than having to spend out £95 on new drives for when this happens

To Err(or) is human:

My apologies for grossly simplifying:

'Error 0x80020022' means basically the same as ''Cannot calibrate laser..'

It cannot calibrate because it can't communicate is more or less what I meant.

My point was that the burning process still evetually errors out and that the actual error definition does not point to the nature of the problem, and can be misleading. For example 'Cannot calibrate laser...' would naturally lead to the assumption that there is a problem with the laser or drive itself. But for most, the drive had functioned perfectly until the upgrade. Res ipsa loquitur, the OS upgrade process has bugs and the drive is functioning perfectly. It's the OS (or IMHO the EFI) which is the problem.

Changing Error Messages:

The change from one error message to another can be explained by the DVD drive being region specific. The region check or error message/de-bugging could have a glitch where different error messages are returned dependent on language preference. For example: if the system language was set to Japanese, the error message 'Cannot calibrate...' may not be understood by the user, thus a code is returned instead. English messages for english speaking users. I believe the nature of this bug rather points to the real problem, and not the error message itself.

Static in the Air:

Even mild static is enough for dust to stick. The laptops I have worked on/repaired all had extremely dusty insides, with the fans and surrounding the fan casing being especially bad. Yes, the speed of the fan blade is directly proportional to the static that can be generated (faster = more), however, the amount of static needed isn't the sort where there is electrical arcing. I'm not talking about lightning bolts firing out of the back of your laptop (although that would be quite cool to see).

Everyone needs a Genius, not:

Don't know which 'Genius' you spoke to, but they all seem to give different answers from one to another. CD lens cleaners are usually a normal DVD disc with one or several little brushes attached. Normally they are not recommended becasue the cheap ones with poor brush quality can damage the lens. I bought an expensive one (Philips). I have never had one jam or damage my drive, but it is true that the brushes can interfere with the disc ejection rollers causing them to not grip.

Enough (hot) Air:

This is exactly the kind of blog conversation digression that I can't stand. I don't want to argue. If you want to blast air into your laptop, go for it. I won't be. If you have a nice clean laptop, that's really great. I wish mine was, but I freelance and work in at least 3 different studios and on the road (sometimes working outside too).

The Real Problem:

The point is that Apple is not addressing this problem. This we all can definitely agree with!

I have not been able to use my MacBook Pro to burn discs for over a year since upgrading from Tiger to Snow Leopard (including booting to other OS's, using external burners, and different media brands). Other people have had exactly the same problem before these OS versions and now after as well. It seems crazy to me that Apple's solution is to either replace the drive, or in some cases replace the logic board. I would really like to know the truth behind the problem. If it is as simple as a firmware patch, then they would've released a fix by now. My gut feeling is that it is a much more complex problem, rooted in the subtle differences in hardware revisions from model to model. If this is the case then there would need to be different EFI and SuperDrive firmware versions for all the combinations of hardware. More importantly, it would open the door to recalls and repairs on a massive scale. Does anyone remember the famous scene in 'Fight Club' about car recalls and why they don't do them?

The next Mac:

I will need to upgrade by spring of next year. I intend to have completely phased discs out of my life by then (I will deliver content to clients via the Cloud). I will purchase the 3 year extended AppleCare and back-up via Time Machine daily. When something (and I mean when and not if) goes wrong with the new laptop, I will send it away to be fixed and demand a temporary replacement which I will restore my back-up to. I have wasted far too much time sorting out and fixing my machine, rather than working chargeable hours for clients!

Fair enough regarding static I misread what you were meaning, Thought by spraying air and dislodging the dust you were then causing a static issue, e.g. statictly charged dust partciles landing on tracks and other components and shorting them out.

Agree sparkes coming out the back would look good, until they set fire to any paper on the desk 😉. It's the same as when the HT coil casing on old CRT monitors broke down, you could see purple plasma sparking and grounding on the frame when you turned the workshop lights off, that always looked cool, but highly dangerous if you came into contact with it due to the high voltage.

The issue for me at least does appear to be a two fold one as I can replicate the comms error by changing settings, but calbration issue from some further info I've found is that it can come about by an OS change in that the settings which would be hard coded into the O/S either for the burning parameters or comms get changed and so on old version of O/S the drive tolerances were slacker and they then tightened them up which results in a optivcal drive which used to work now not working, and all of this can be achieved at a software level. I have 2 lines of thought why that might then occur as Apple aren't really known for being good to their users that use older kit.

Not sure if you own or ever saw issue regarding IOS on the iPhone when they moved to iPhone 4 all us iPhone 3 users found the update made our phones run like 3 legged dogs, now again that might be they had no choice to get things going the way they needed to be on iPhone 4 but is also a good way to push users from 3 to 4 by making the 3 series look slow and rubbish compared to the new generation.

Apple takes the Osborn Effect too seriously and releases updates and upgrades in an absolutely insidious way.

Message In A Bottle:

My suggestion would be that Apple releases a utility that reads any given hardware configuration and rolls back the drive calibration to appropriate tolerances for the given model drive. The utility can be 'hidden' in Software Update. It can even do an online version check/download as new fixes are added. To keep with the deliberate strategy to pimp out the new products, while prostituting out the old, this utility could even restrict the top speed a little. i don't care, just make it work again. Perhaps this wish will remain just that. I believe (persistantly) the real issue is within the EFI which sets these parameters at boot and before the OS loads. This would also explain a host of other problems people experience such as random beach-ball lock-ups (hardware communication timing)...

Off(hook) Topic:

I have also had a problem where upgrading my iOS corrupted my baseband firmware (NOR) where the radio table was not correctly copied (as far as I could discover) rendering my WiFi and Bluetooth functionality inoperable. I believe a small utility could be created to read and correct the table after examining the hardware, since this would need to be a unique fix for each phone having this issue. Trouble is that the corrected table must be flashed to the 'NVRAM' and the phone can't flash itself (but would be super cool if it could!).

There are countless combinations of CPU/hardware/OS/software out there, and more created daily. Bound to be issues..... The A series chip could easily morph into a whole new platform, too, but we're getting a long ways from the 0x80020022 error that started this thread.

A 1.83GHz MacBook was backed up here, then upgraded to OS 10.6.3 via $30 OS DVD from Apple.

Software Update had two batches of 6 updates each, including EFI firmware (v1). After bringing machine current to 10.6.7, the optical drive produced 0x80020022 error. Booted from a 10.5.8 volume, the OD functioned fine, w/o error. Solution was to wipe hard drive and restore from backup, upgraded to 10.6.3, which is where we left it. OD burns at 24x.

(Wish I had recorded the brand of drive - sorry.)

I read thru page 5 of this thread. I've been an Apple user since 1986 and I can definitely say that their computer products have taken a sharp drop in quality in the last decade. They're all shiny and pretty and induce irrational buying, but under the hood these MacBook Pro's, which easily go for upward of $1500, are not solid state. Specifically, the SuperDrives are crap, and have been for at least the last 3 years or so. I have a 2008 MacBook Pro and getting a DVD to burn, using either Toast or Mac's own disc burning utility, yields an error almost every time.

There is hope, however. I bought this stand alone DVD/CD burner from Other World Computing, and it burned two DVDs flawlessly right out of the box (at x16 no less!) So there is a way around some of this frustration, but you shouldn't have to buy third party products when you're supposedly buying a state of the art computer from a company with $70 billion in reserves.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/VLU2SD22XLS/

I totally agree, Mac has disappointed me also twice with hard ware trouble . And this **** super drive. Whats so super , if it don’t do the Job . its been an Embarrassment to me. and many of my colleges laugh for buying a mac.

I have been to so many blogs on this topic. two including this one . On my own quire about this. Said legal action should be taken. as this infringes consumer right. Where those TV programs like Watch dog? UK

Sorry mac . this has just gone on far to long , with no resolve. error code 0x80020022)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2300720

i have gone on other forums and blogs and this seems to be an on going thing . Its about time this was put right and a simple down load or fix was made, as the forums are growing so big. Scanning through them makes me ill.

How to stop this Error Code 0x80020025 and access my DVDs

3 years later and still no come back from Mac . i have e mailed . been on their hot line and sent back feed back from repair. And still I get this trouble with the super drive, I have slowed to 2x etc and still cannot Burn ML DVDs . It was OK when i first had the mac , but after up dates , No go No resolve.

Yep soooooooo long and money thrown away on DVDs. 😠

HA HA thats a joke

When my MBP was new i was living in Mac Borneo trouble after trouble, I told them again and again forum after forum , to fix this super drive. All they said was it woud have to be replace and cost da da da 1500 Rm the repair no telling how long . As they do not have the drives in malaysia.

Time goes on Im told use other DVDs. Times passes. I call hot line i write here on Forums time after time . Now AppleCare or original warrantee... I went to renew when i came back from uk, Theytold me "cannot" as i was a day late ! And on top if you look at these forums Screen trouble, graphics card . Anothe rstory

Il never buy another thing that i cannot repair my self.

Can't we focus on what a forum is supposed to be for?!

I could'nt care less about Apple bashing and whining and complaining.

I'm here to find useful information to see what I can do about my hardware problem.

If you want to complain, join a support group.

These threads always degrade into unproductive banter.

If you have a problem with your laptop casing, complain on that thread.

Likewise for keyboard lettering wearing off - go to that thread.

As far as I can tell about SuperDrives is that the hardware works and isn't damaged.

I connected my supposedly faulty SuperDrive to a PC laptop (with a new driver), and the drive was working fine and burned a disc without problems.

I suspect a problem with the EFI firmware flash. The EFI is uprgarded often with a new version of OSX. For example, when Tiger was released, it was a major update and is when I can track back the beginnings of SuperDrive problems. Now people also have random beach-ball lock-ups and other EFI related problems.

Apple will not recall the SuperDrives - ever.

They won't acknowledge the EFI problem, because this would result and major recall and repair issues.

They will ignore, and eventually the problem (us) will go away.

I have been trying to push for an EFI roll-back tool, which used to exist to rollback EFI 1.7 to 1.6 or 1.5. This fixed a lot of peoples problems, however Apple blocked this backdoor once upgraded to EFI 1.8 becuase people were using the rollback to enable them to use hardware not sanctioned by Apple (faster hard drives).