The Attempt to burn disc failed. The burn failed because of a medium write error.

I had this problem a couple of days ago , i normally use printable cd,s so i can print the album cover on them .

I tried a verbatim disc and that was fine . however after using a multimedia lens cleaner I have now been able to go back to using my usual cd's so it must have been a dirty laser . worth a try ?

Cleaned the drive, and that didn't work, because well my drive wasn't dirty. I checked and fixed my permissions, and restarted my mac. Luckily this worked, but I wish our Macs would tell you a more detailed explanation then "dirty write error". If the drive is dirty say dirty drive. If permissions have to be repaired, to burn, say repair permissions? How difficult is that?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities.

Have you tried burning at a slower speed?

There are 9 pages of questions and responses in a long-standing similar thread here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2300720?answerId=11399890022#11399890022

Just a shot in the dark, but from reading your post I get the feeling that you burn a lot of CD's ?

so two questions :

has the optical drive been changed or is it the original one ?

would you say you have burned 200 or more cd's on this drive ?

reply and I'll try some more.

custom mini.

An optical drive may read/write CDs, but not DVDs, may r/w DVDs, but not DVD DLs, etc. etc. In order to have a clear opinion about its integrity, take some rw supports and burn, if CDs or DVDs regularly or mostly fail, then the drive is dying. The process may last months, perhaps a year or more, they never die all of a sudden. And, yes, the lasers are different for CDs and DVDs

I found this fix on an Apple blog dated February 2008. I tried it and can now burn dvd's just fine.

"2 methods to fix this one is reset pram at boot up hold four keys down till you hear 3 chimes command(apple)+option+p+r

If you have pci slots you may need to do this also or instead of above this is to reset nvram at boot up hold command(apple)+option+o+f"

3 methods to fix this:

The first is to reset pram

at boot up hold four keys down till you hear 3 chimes:

command(apple)=option+p+r

release keys and it will now reboot.

The second is to reset nvram

at boot up hold four keys down:

command(apple)+option+o+f

a black screen will appear

now type: reset-nvram

click enter

now type: reset-all

click enter

it will now reboot

The third is to open system preferences.

go to international

under languages: drag any of the other languages to the top, then drag english back to the top.

make sure "order for sorted lists" is set to english

make sure "word break" is set to english(united states, computer)

then restart.

I hope this helps you as it certainly did me. :^)

This error popped up for the first time today as well. I adjusted the write speed downward to 12x and it worked just fine after that.

Let applications choose its speed according to real data. As a thumb rule, NEVER choose maximum speed in the list, it is NEVER as high as showed. 8x for CDs and 4x for DVDs is best; choosing higher speeds does not mean half burn time (test it, you will see that the difference is unimportant).

Thanks. We'll try your suggestions.

I have found a resolution to this issue that also allows me to write text to the CD.

I use RealPlayer, which writes to the CDs just fine.

Hi - what is pram and nvram - this expansive solution ... not sure about how it works ? Is it safe ?

ATTEMPT TO BURN FAILURE!!

I have had CDs kick out because of burn failure-I came upon a solution by accident-

I had tried different CD brands thinking that may be the problem-

What I discovered was the CDs that have worked for me are CD-R MUSIC CDs!!!!!!

All of the CD brands I tried have kicked out of comp failing to burn-so it is not

the brand that makes a difference-on the packaging it shows what can be burned

on the CDs-photos-data-music etc-here is what you have to look for-

CD-R MUSIC "HAS" TO BE PRINTED ON THE CD ITSELF-

they are hard to find but I have found them on SONY-MAXELL+MEMOREX!!!!!!!!

Just bought some Memorex at K-Mart!

REMEMBER THIS:

"CD-R MUSIC" HAS TO BE PRINTED DIRECTLY ON THE CD!!!!

SLCNAC JACK