I agree with you and I burn cds since 98. I haven't noticed a difference on failures on drives just like you say, and I used to burn a lot on my desktop. Although I used to replace regular cd drives on a yearly basis and recorders once every 2 years. I just mentioned sth that I read without too much thought and it might as well be nonsense. :-)

As of the numbers that I state above, I hope that you do agree that it is rather conservative on a yearly basis, don't you? If you add them up I didn't burn more than 50 since August; and I am sure this is an over-estimate.

It could simply be that you ended up with a drive that didn't hold up as it should have. That's why we have warranties.

Verbatim arrived but still no luck ... I am now waiting for the cleaner in case it helps but I guess I need a new drive.

works
 

How strange that this fix should provoke such hostility. I can confirm that it works for me, provided (as another poster has mentioned) that the language is set to US English and not to English. Afterwards the disk (a DL DVD+R in my case) verifies and mounts.

It does seem like a crazy fix, but any programmer will tell you that it's probably just a notification bug. I expect laser calibration is the first interaction with the drive, so some initialisation routines are triggered. When they fail, an exception is thrown by the calibration routine instead of the failing subsystem.

The fact that international settings eliminate the problem tell us us that it's probably something to do with region settings or some other pernicious rights-limitation routine that is invoked on DVD burn. I wonder if the bug has affected anyone whose computer is set to US English by default?

I am very curious as to how landrick manage to find and isolate the fix, though...

meglio ancora - better still
 

I have stacks less tall than me of two different appearing DVD+R DL media. One says Ritek at the hub and is plain white, and the other is flat silver Memorex with shiny checks (not Czechs). Each has the same media code (RITEK…S04B) when examined with DVD Media Inspector.app.

Using either a Sony or a Philips FW external burner connected to a G5 iMac 1800GHz, the silver ones often return the laser power calibration error, but the white ones burn at close to a 100% success rate.

I can't wait to try landrick's voodoo or not voodoo detailed again below.

And Las Vegas, I have compostable thumbs.

I've been on this forum for a while, and didn't noticed this thread before!

I'm having the same problem with my External Firewire Plextor PX-740UF DVD burner.

Maybe I'll try the language changing trick and see what happens.

No, any programmer would probably tell you that you're pulling enough assumptions out of the air to last a lifetime, and that assumptions are evil.

That same programmer would then point out how absolutely random the results of the procedure are and then point out how everyone is restarting at the end. He'd also emphasize how often it doesn't do anything at all.

Nuts! (in the Bastogne sense)
 

Landrick's voodoo did not work. I made another coaster labeled Memorex.

Another thread in these forums recommends using a DVD/CD laser lens cleaning disk. I bought one and used it, and made another coaster labeled Memorex before I tried landrick's voodoo.

So, ebay or craig's list here I come, to make someone who can burn these a good deal.

I would not call myself an expert, but I have several DVD burners and I've been burning DVDs for several years. These media are uniquely truculent and merit harsh rebuke.

This brought a huge smile to my face.

Replaced
 

Ok. Since my warranty was still effective, I visited the local "genius bar" and as soon as the people saw all the error messages, they simply said: "Do you have applecare?" :) And that was it. I left my pro there on May 28th, and after 3 days I got it back and working. Now I can burn cds/dvds again. Simple as that.
I guess the fact that I had tested two different brands also mattered. Just check how many error reports you have in your DiscRecording.log under Applications/Utilities/Console.app. For example I had lots of error messages like the following ones:
In fact, they didn't even try to burn a dvd ... ;)
Yeah, go change the language settings, open a window (fresh air), and don't forget to turn on the lights even if it's broad daylight. This is the recipe for optimum efficiency. :p

cheers

LOL.

Okay, so what was done to your machine at the shop to now make it right?

The obvious. I had the drive replaced by a brand new one.

It wasn't entirely obvious. I was about to post the same question that johngpt asked.

Next question: Is the new SuperDrive the same model and brand as the previous one?

How frustrating! This fix really did work for me originally. But not any more! Has anyone managed to figure out WHY the fix works (for some, anyway)? If we can work out WHY it works we can figure out how to make it ALWAYS work. There must be some other setting that needs to be set at the same time as playing with the Language settings.

Hello all,

I am another among the many to register strictly because of this thread. (You might say that it is relevant to my interests.) after setting up 2 partitions on a separate internal HD and installing windows on one of them I was having the same problem as everyone here.
the region thing DID NOT work for me, though I tried it. as crazy as this sounds here is what I did.

1. tried the language/region thing
2. tried a dvd/cd cleaner disc still the same error
3. got pissed off
4. ???????????
5. said "Ok F**k" it and put in a DVD movie to see if it would play. it did.
6. said "Ok F**k" again and tried burning the same iso that I had been trying to burn for several hours.
7. It worked.(profit)

what the hell.

solutions like this voodoo make me close to furious.
I don't like solutions that include watching part of fight club to solve the problem.

if anyone has any idea what might have been the gateway to the solution in my string of events, I would be interested.


love,

peanutboy

Ok. Well, I'm burning successfully again. All I can do is say WHAT I did to achieve it this time. Last time the Language thingy worked. Then it didn't. I've been trying again all evening.

Finally I logged off and logged back on as System Administrator (you may need to have to 'Enable Root User' before you can do this). Note this is the root account - you can log in as user 'root' - and not just any account with administrator privileges. I immediately tried burning and it worked. (In fact it's 85% through so far...)

Can't say WHY it might have worked. Possibly because it's got different user settings. Possibly because the root account just allows more things. Who knows?

All I know is it works NOW. Might not work tomorrow. Who can say?

Bring back the good ol' days of computing! When it either worked or it didn't! Every time!

I suppose I'll add my incredulous account to the fire.

I just tried to burn a Memorex DVD+R DL 8x at 2.4x.
The first attempt failed with Disk Utility via the built in SuperDrive (the laser sense error).
The second attempt failed with Toast via the built in SuperDrive (some series of arcane hex code errors).
The third attempt failed with Disk Utility via an external LaCie writer (laser sense).
I then tried the "fix" of swapping the languages around (why not). But, I realized I had just started a download so I skipped rebooting and went right to the burn.
It's burning via Disk Utility in the SuperDrive.

W ... T ... F

Now there are all manner of uncontrolled variables which may have lead to this success:
Perhaps changing the language clears some cache file.
Perhaps after 3 burn attempts the drive was warmed up.
Perhaps after 3 burn attempts the disc itself was warmed up.
Perhaps changing the language really does have an effect (I'll note that I originally had English selected and added US English above it, I also originally had Standard selected for Word Break).

This is about as voodoo of Mac troubleshooting I've ever seen. I just can't let myself fall to "post hoc, ergo prompter hoc" here. Maybe this is one of the few remaining Easter Eggs in Leopard? Performing the above actions invokes a special kind of magic only Steve Wozniak could control.

Just to be sure I'm going outside to bury my iPod upside down in front of my door. Hopefully that will keep me safe.

Maybe the root of the problem isn't the software/firmware/OS, maybe it's related to physical conditions such as temperature/humidity/barometric pressure. Condensation on either the lens, or on the disc, might be preventing the necessary calibration. That would be a much more reasonable explanation for the erratic nature of the problem.

I realize this is a dangerous thing to post, but quite honestly I haven't heard of PCs experiencing this sort of problem. I use both Macs and PCs, so I keep up on both platforms, and nothing resembling this is reported even under the reviled Vista (which has been a pretty major flop for Microsoft, despite not being QUITE as bad as some have reported). There is something going on with the Mac OS and the driver support for DVD burners, it would seem, though just -what- this is is by no means clear. I'm surprised that Apple hasn't had more to say about this. It is obviously a problem, though it may not be consistent enough to count as a bug. But just look at the length of this thread! A lot of people in the Mac world are having this problem, one would have to think. It would be particularly interesting if we could see if there is any consistency in the version of the OS which could be a factor....I don't know how to begin to do that, however. But if the cause were variable media, environmental differences, or such, one would expect the same failure rate among all of the burners in use, and this really does seem to be largely a Mac problem--unless someone has evidence to the contrary that I haven't seen?

Joe VanZandt

It's possible that the problem is that Apple is more demanding of the drive. Remember a few years ago when an Apple update rendered a bunch of RAM unusable? The issue was that Apple was now applying more stringent guidelines towards testing the RAM before enabling it and "lesser quality" RAM, though still valid, was disabled.

It's possible that other systems are more lenient when sensing the laser calibration. I think this would lend credence to an environmental cause.

Like the RAM issue, it's debatable as to whether this is the desired behavior or not. I will say it's not acceptable given the use of Apple supplied hardware. Though I tend to think this is more likely a media issue as I haven't had problems until I tried to burn a Memorex disc of unknown supplier, where typically I order unbranded Taiyo Yuden. I'll have to give it another go if I even buy more DL discs. They're'nt ( :) ) really worth the price unless the capacity is absolutely required.