Well, that makes nearly as much sense as the fix--namely, very little. What could region codes possibly have to do with burning data to a blank DVD? I don't think you have yet got your money's worth from your support agreement. Does it ADD a region code to a DVD you produce? I didn't know that, if it does.

Joe VanZandt

Another mysterious success story...
 

I am a newbie here and to macs in general (I have owned an imac for 3 months), so I have no explanations for any of this either. I was attempting to burn the second disc ever on this machine, music files onto a Memorex cd-r, when I got the cursed error about the laser not calibrating, or whatever. After trying a few times with other discs, I did a search, found this thread, and decided to give that strange fix a try since it seems harmless enough. Sure enough, I moved around the intl. language settings as directed and restarted and she's burning again. I haven't made any more cds to figure out if this "fix" will be required each time I want to burn something (hopefully not...that could get pretty irritating), but Im feeling like a success story all the same. I am looking forward to hearing more about this from all you pros out there.

Thanks for the great input!
-Rebecca in North Pole, Alaska

It sounds as though you have had many encounters with this error message. Have you tried eliminating steps from the recipe to determine if there are any extraneous steps? For example: It might be that only the last step (restart) actually does any good.

I encountered this problem recently. First time I have ever had received this message and tried the International Language solution posted above. It worked immediately and I was able to burn a disc successfully. My guess is that it somehow clears the DVD region setting? In any case, it works!

Well, i'm the one who posted this thread. Should I try that "fix" and let you guys what happen?

Since I gave up on this a while ago I haven't try to burn a DVD for months. Now when I insert a DVD disk the computer ejects the DVD within 10-15 seconds. This does NOT happen with a CD. We burn a CD every friday. I followed the steps about changing the international settings, but still have not re-started the computer. Since this is a server a have a some user connected at this time. I will re-start in the morning and post the results. thanks..

Ok, that trick did NOT work for me. As I mentioned before I gave up a long time ago. Before trying the supposed solution my DVD drive keep ejecting the DVD disk after 10 seconds of being inside. I tried the "fix" suggested before and nada!! thanks

here's Apple's other suggestion... "Reset the SMC on this unit: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304123" i haven't bothered testing it yet. of course they also recommended the thoughtless "... wipe the drive - reinstall the OS... "

also, a note to ThreeBKK & cocotu: i learned i do not have to actually restart the system, only log out then back into the profile i was using.

That's a step in the right direction. I wonder if there are any other steps which can be eliminated from the recipe.

I could NOT BELIEVE it, but this fix worked for me. I had been trying to burn a DVD over and over and thought maybe the drive was broken. Changed the International settings and it worked fine after that!

But the problem recurred last night when I was trying to burn a CD, and the fix didn't work. Maybe it only works for DVD-burning? I tried a different CD, at a lower speed, and then it worked. Strange huh?

jb: Are you saying that you didn't have to restart?

So in other words, it did not work for you.

The region setting is stored in a setting on the drive. Otherwise, DVD drives could not be region-locked.

Honestly, after all the people I've seen say this "fix" doesn't do anything for them, or the problem just comes back . . . it sounds like coincidence involving some sort of intermittent hardware or media issue. (Or they're restarting and not always saying they are.)

Have any of the persons who had posted about having this problem with burning, tried burning from a different user account?

The original poster was running OS X server 10.4.6, but how about the others?

I read in one of the posts, from Rebecca, that she had used memorex media. I've always had problems with memorex on my macs. I have best success with verbatim or sony. Might the brand of media be part of the problem?

Forgotten now, but yeah I think I did have to restart.
read my post again
This happened (and the fix worked) on 10.5.0. I have, however, also had this problem with Tiger. I don’t know if the fix works on Tiger though, I didn't find it until after I'd upgraded to Leopard; I'd always thought my computer just had a flakey drive.

I had tried everything before the fix, re-installing the OS, using multiple burn programs, different media, resetting P-RAM etc. It is not an "intermittent" problem that a simple reboot will fix

Maybe after you've experienced the problem yourself and have tried the fix, you'll be qualified to comment?

Hi all,

Just thought I should post to say that the above fix worked for me.

Simon

Worked for me, too!
 

I was tasked by a friend to do a dvd for a party this evening...everything was going great until last night's burning of the dvds!! I got this "laser calibration" error & sometimes just a general "medium" error.

I went out bought new dvds, cleaner but nothing was working. I almost had to post this movie on youtube for my friend vs. having a dvd everyone could watch on TV at the party.

This odd but very successful "fix" did just that.
I burned many dvds on my macmini in the past but it went belly up for the first time last night.

I'm running OS X 10.4.11 1.33ghz PowerPC G4 with Matshitadvd-r UJ-845 burner.

Thanks again for posting this fix - you saved me buying a new burner & my friend some big-time embarrassment!
I also joined today just to post back that this fix is definitely legit...

I had the same problem with a CD-R 700Mb from Sony. My iMac G5 PPC is now happily burning away after applying the fix with just a logout, not reboot... Okay, hold the phone...

The burner completed it's duties but verification did not go so well.

"This disc could not be verified and might be unreliable. Try again using a new blank disc. (Error code 0x80020063)"

However, upon loading the dodgy disc and opening it in Finder, bearing in mind that I put a bunch of photos there, only some of the thumbs loaded. Then, rather strangely, the spinning umbrella, and then Finder completely relaunched: desktop icons, dock, open Finder windows, everything reloaded.

Next up... take Apple's advice and try a new cd.

oddly enough this worked for me. although it does not hold, and has to be redone for each successive burn.

also to note i got 75% into the burn after not being able to start the burn , but all burns fail to the media (hp dl dvd)

dave

"failed to calibrate" message
 

Hi,
If it makes any of you feel better, the language solution didn't work for me.

I still get the same "failed to calibrate the laser power level" message no matter how I burn, what speed, or what media.

I've tried cleaning, dusting, lowering the speed to 4x, changing media, upgrading to latest iTunes, using the Finder to burn instead of iTunes and, of course, the System Preferences/International language solution.

And I had such high hopes...

I'm desperate. It worked fine with the same media 2 weeks ago. What does everyone else think?

Thanks, Judy