What may have changed about your system in this intervening two weeks? Might you have installed new software, or upgraded/updated some software?

For all of the people posting that this fix works, or doesn't work, please be sure to mention what model optical drive you are using. Example: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857E. Also, try to remember whether or not you have applied any of the SuperDrive Firmware Updates.

didnt work.
 

Didn’t work for me. I’m using a 20" core2 iMac. 10.5.1. firmware update yielded a message stating it wasn't necessary. hopefully we find a definitive fix here...

Thanks vicm.
Which model SuperDrive do you have in your iMac?
Were you also burning an .iso image?

works
 

The language fix works for me... i'll certainly look into WHY it worked!

didn't work
 

My Mac mini superdrive has been all kinds of flaky. I also got the laser power calibration error, and tried the fix (just log out, no reboot), to no avail. Then, I tried another of the Memorex (shudder) 3-pack of DVD+R DL and the second one seemed to work! Well, it got burning anyway. Got about half way and threw 'Unable to burn "NAME" - The device failed to respond properly, unable to recover or retrv..' I hate these drives. Major Apple failure. Third disc gives same error as first. I'll try with better media and post an update.

Also, in the past, I was unable to burn DVDs. CDROMs were fine, but 19-20 DVDs were spit out in 10 seconds. I followed one site's suggestion of a *carefully* blowing little compressed air in the slot. I did this (not full bursts, just some light touches) and it has worked since (20-30 burns). This was a different problem than the laser calibration one. In that one, the DVDs were accepted, the data checksummed, and then the error. The compressed air fix helped when the DVDs are not even being accepted (for more than 10 seconds). Hope this helps someone. Drive data below.


MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-846:

Firmware Revision: FM3J
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: No

MEMOREX 3pk DVD+R DL (red box)

Update: Fix apparently lasted
 

I originally posted some time back that I attempted this fix with success some time ago on my 20" aluminum imac running Tiger, but didn't use the burner frequently enough to really assess whether it had been a lasting fix or not.

Well, I have used the burner this month to burn about 40 discs with all different types of files and media and have not encountered the "laser failed to calibrate" message a second time. (Knock on wood, though, eh?) All aspects of the burning process have gone on without a hitch. I don't know what this means in the grand scheme of things, but if you're having a similar issue, don't be discouraged by the folks that claim the fix doesn't work and just give it a try for yourself, because it apparently does in some cases.

Side note: I don't know if this is a note-worthy factor or not, but I realized this week that I have never played a dvd on my machine, only created some, so my mac has never set its dvd region code. (Since I can only change 5 times, and I am pretty international, I am saving those 5 changes for when I really need the dvd player.)

-Rebecca
North Pole, Alaska

Oh, and per the request, my burner type is OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5630A
I have never sought out a firmware update, but the computer tells me the firmware revision is 1AHM, for whatever that's worth.

Fixing the calibration error
 

Good grief!

The fix really does work!

Interesting point though for any of those of you who didn't get it to work...

When selecting the languages, it seems you MUST choose "US English" (as per the example) and not just "English". There's something about the US version which makes it work. I initially just selected "English" (as I'm not in the USA) and did the 'dragging' bit and it failed.

Hope that helps someone.

Whatever next? Fixing disc problems by changing the screen saver?

YES ... I just had the same error on a new box of Memorex DVD- DL 8.5 2.4x .... Did the rather "odd" workaround, and burned the first DVD. Then turned right around and followed my friend Charly's directions to back up my new Leopard Install DVD, and that worked fine w/o going thru the original International Preferences stuff.


[QUOTE=
(did anyone else notice that this thread is the number one hit when googling "The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media"?)[/QUOTE]

Yes, that is how I found the (odd) fix for the issue.

And, to the nice naysayers up-thread, notice I am not necessarily a first-time poster.

"International" fix no worky
 

Just so that I was on the safe side, I rebooted, then tried my burn again... no worky. So I tried the "international" fix, & then tried my burn again... no worky.

I have a 12" Powerbook G4 with the Matsushita UJ-835E & I'm trying to burn Maxell CD-R 48x. I tried the burns at 8x & 24x. No difference in results.

Hi,

I just registered to say that I did try the "fix" and it didn't work.
I did, however, tried switching my media from Memorex DVD-R 16x disc to a TDK DVD-R 16x disc, and it worked fine.

I have never had any problems with the TDK, as I have used over 100 discs in the last year, with only 1 or 2 bad burns, and not with this same message.

I'm assuming the type of media is factoring into this, but I do not know how to find a resoultion for this issue.

It totally worked!
 

:D:D:D

Ok, gotta say, that's one of the strangest work-arounds I've ever encountered. I have a 2GHz Core Duo Mac Mini and was having burn and CD/DVD recognition issue's. Didn't want the apple care downtime so wanted to get this fixed myself. I took it apart and cleaned the laser, it recognized the DVD/CD's but still wouldn't burn. The error changed to the failed to adjust laser power for media error, found this post and it worked like a charm. Very strange.

Thank you very much!!!:D:D:D

arcane, random, but much to my surprise, it does indeed work.

Mysterious "fix"
 

Bullocks. It doesn't work, nor is there any reason for it to work. (Yes, I tried it.) I tried two DVDs with the same calibration problem. I put in a third and it worked. It was that simple. The problem, IMO, is the quality control for burnable DVDs and CDs is shite.

Look through any of the posts and you'll see references to CD and DVD "coasters". There's a reason the term is so popular: It's accurate. I'm guessing there are imperfections in the media that cause the sensitive laser to not be able to get a firm "fix" on what it needs to do to make the burn "catch." (Yeah, I know. Sorry about the technical terms *grin*).

Regardless, you're going to go through a handful or CDs/DVDs before it works. You can try a different burner on a different machine and might have more luck, but $10 says if it does, it's a burner from a different manufacturer, hence a different the laser with different tolerance levels.

It does NOT work :-)
 

Same here. It obviously does not work, since there is no reason for it to work. As of the reply by Apple, what did that guy expect. He just contacted Apple stating his "fix" to his problem; and they say "oh well, it might be associated ..." (yes, but in a parallel universe :p). I mean "mercy!" This reminds me of an era back in windoze when people could say "don't open that app while I am dialing to connect to the internet because the line might drop... or the colors will go grey ... or *place another bunch of incoherence here and you have a valid win-statement of the 90s* (some guys still say similar things lol). I don't mean to be rude, but it is outrageous that some people insist on "switching languages" is "the catch" ...

Anyway, my macbook pro is not even a year old so I am really pissed.
Regarding my drive:
By the way, wtf is MATSHITA? I had never heard of the manufacturer before. I don't get it why it was chosen by Apple (apart from the obvious financial reason which also comes with so many dangers) ...
The only time that I though this so called "fix" was actually able to work was because in the final command of the "script" you have to restart your computer and therefore on a fresh boot you might have much more swap available if you are running very low on your hard drive (like I do atm - about 3GB free after the restart). Alas, it turned out *not* to work even when I attempted to write just 200MB instead. :( So, this idea is probably wrong again ( I tested only 2 dvds )

The dvds used (tested about 10 (8 randomly selected) of the 50 pack ==> my $s for that 50-pack go directly to a trash can...) were Sony DVD+R.

Atm, I purchased a lens cleaner from amazon as well as some verbatim dvd-r (this time minus since they are supposed to be more all-around) and I am waiting for them to be delivered. As soon as I try them out I'll report again but I don't expect much...

Oh, and as of the OS, when I bought my pro it came with tiger and now I am running leopard 10.5.2 all updates installed as of today. In details:

I'll be interested in seeing the results
 

I'm curious if the cleaner works. In theory (well, the theory we're talking about) it should make a difference if the quality of the media isn't that far off from the approved spec and the laser is slightly off as well. Pls post what you find.

There's what looks like a decent set of reviews for the various media types here: http://www.cdfreaks.com/media/ Can't vouch for it, but it looks promising.

And as an FYI MATSHITA = Panasonic. (It was three separate companies but then pulled each of the brands together.)

If your Macbook is "not even a year old" then it's covered under warranty. Call Apple and arrange for a warranty repair.

Eventually I will have to do that if I don't get around the problem in one way or another. But that's the only computer I have atm, and if they want to keep it for some days, then I don't know if I am willing to give it to them. :-)

And by the way, since last August (that's when I bought the macbook) I burnt no more than 15-20 cds and no more than 10-15 dvds... (all same brand - sony) I am just stating that because I read somewhere (probably in this forum) that latest dvd-recorders are not meant to last as long as the old ones, since the material is cheaper (plastic) and writing at maximum speed accelerates their death. But the quantities can not justify even that...

I don't know where you read that about drives. I can only report based on my own experiences. I've been burning discs in fairly large quantities since CD-R's came out. Drives fail no quicker today than they ever did. With the quantity of burning that I do, I expect to replace my drive in my desktop about once a year and always have.

Notebook drives are actually built more rugged than desktop drives because of the environmental factors they have to work under and the space the hardware has to fit into. I've only had one notebook drive ever fail on me and another on a client's machine. Of course, I don't do a lot of burning from the notebook.

Anyone ever try repairing disk permissions?