The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media - Page 12

mrbigpappa · 06-05-2009, 06:32 AM

I was thinking that the whole language reset fix was strange so I looked at the fix and saw the only logical part of the fix that could effect any change on my computer was at the end of the fix when it instructed me to restart my computer. So I skipped everything else in the fix and only restarted my computer and it fixed my problem. So yes the fix worked but anything that you would have told me to do before restarting my computer would have worked as well. I have a new fix. Send me $20 then restart your computer and it will work.... Just a thought..... :-)

Ollie · 06-06-2009, 12:37 PM

Hi everyone,

Joined this thread as I also wanted to confirm that the fix worked for me and I have had no problems since.

I was also getting problems with Toast and now these errors have gone as well.

I am using Matshita DVD-R UJ-846 drive.

I know its hard to believe for some, but I tried to burn some files using Disk Utility on to a TDK DVD +R several times and got the error and the disk was ejected after 10 seconds. After trying the fix, I used the same disk and it worked. So I can't see how it could be a fault with the quality of the disks.

Hope it works for more of you

justin6512 · 06-12-2009, 08:07 PM

I was having these same issues so I went down to the store and bought some compressed air. I gave my super drive a good blast and whalaa, it's fixed. My MBP is just under 2 years old, and I haven't done a lot of burning so I knew it couldn't be a dead drive.

The tech at my local Mac shop said the same laser in the super drive is used to read / write, but when you write to a disc the laser is using a much higher voltage. If you have a slightly dirty lens then it is possible the laser cannot reach the correct voltage to burn.

Hope this works!

ThreeBKK · 06-18-2009, 10:47 AM

I finally found a reason to burn a DVD yesterday, and I repeatedly got the calibration error message. Over the past two days I must have tried more than a dozen times to burn the same .dmg onto the same DVD+RW using the same Mac. Rebooting didn't fix the problem. I put the PowerBook to sleep for about 20 or 30 minutes until it was cool to the touch. Immediately after waking the Mac I tried burning the disc again and it worked. High internal temperature seems to have been the cause of the failure in my case. The fix that started this post was next on my list of things to try.

Marlboro Man · 06-18-2009, 04:45 PM

Was trying to burn a DVD a few days ago, got the silly unable to calibrate error in Burn, Toast, and Disk Utility, on disk after disk.

Called AppleCare yesterday and had a pleasant chat with the rep. He didn't really recommend anything I hadn't tried, but he was pleasant and chatty, so I really didn't mind all that much. I was instructed to reset the SMC & NVRAM, which I had already done, create new user account and try there (no luck), then repair permissions (worked once). Basically a wasted 45 minutes, but at least the fellow was pleasant and spoke good English, unlike my previous experiences with PC tech support. Changing media solved the problem.

While I tried the voodoo suggested early on which met with failure, I suspect the problem in my case is mostly media related. I luckily had three different brands of DVD at my disposal: Verbatim -R (several years old, found around the house during the nonburning nightmare), Sony +R and the Apple branded -R. The Sony +R's work about 25% of the time, the Apple -R has a 50% success rate, while the Verbatim -R's worked every single time, out of a spindle of 50. I'm far from an expert, but it seems the Apple drives are quite a bit more finicky with media, as the same disks my MBP spit out burned fine on a five year old Dell.

awhitty · 06-19-2009, 01:05 AM

Just to add another case in support of this solution. Using Leopard 10.5.7.

ThreeBKK · 06-19-2009, 01:52 PM

I almost forgot.
Drive used: MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-835E
Firmware revision: GAND
Media type: Verbatim DVD+RW (single layer) 1-4x

I had only a single disc that I tried burning over and over again.

untamedpeace · 06-20-2009, 04:07 PM

I got the same error message on my mac book pro after having to hard bootdown in midst of a dvd burn attempt that made a loud noise (possibly because of a sticker on disc) and then wouldn't stop spinning..

i googled the errormessage and found this forum as one of the top hits...

first i figured i'd need to get a disc cleaning cd but of course decided to try the "incredible fix" first

seems to straighten up a wrinkle in puters thinking process or something and the exact disc (bunch of jpg pictures) burned right away...

so i'm posting cos -yes i too am a new name here" but i've never before been as surprised by a fix and i often come on forums in search for answers and it deserves more people knowing it...

ps standard SEO would explain that this thread gets top spots since it's got a lot more followup posts than the others under same category... don't have anything to do with what google deems a likely source to have mac answers

Plagued · 06-27-2009, 10:27 PM

I have a Macbook Pro
My disc drive is:

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857:

Firmware Revision: HAE4
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media:
Type: CD-ROM
Blank: No
Erasable: No
Overwritable: No
Appendable: No

Okay, so I tried that incredible fix, which doesn't work.
Secondly I used Dust Off, the compressed air, which worked perfectly.
Figured I should make an account to post a working (for me at least) solution.
TRY CLEANING YOUR WITH COMPRESSED AIR.

normand · 07-01-2009, 07:03 AM

I have been experiencing the same problem but only when attempting to
backup my Itunes library. After several attempts, four different types of media, DVD and CD, nothing worked. I also tried the strange fix noted here and that didn't work either. Over the last couple of years, I have been consistently loosing the same Itunes store purchased songs over and over. I then decided to see if this was a drive problem and burned an Itunes playlist, which worked just fine. CDs and DVDs also function properly in playback mode. I contacted my local Apple store and was surprised to find that there was a customer in store at the very moment with exactly the same problem, however, she is dealing with the issue on a PC.
So, am I thinking that this is an Itunes software issue? Has anyone gotten a response from Apple regarding the problem?

thanks

chrisbaskind · 07-02-2009, 04:15 PM

OK, I'm a suspicious new member with a single post, but the screen name is my real name and I'd respond to administrator emails confirming that.

This "incredible fix" has no business working, but it did for my dualie G5 PowerMac with a Sony DVD RW DW-U10A drive.

I'd largely given up trying to burn media. Toast's error messages weren't helpful, but I decided to give it a shot in Disk Utility and received a more verbose failure. Googled the error message, which brought me here.

This is by far the most bizarre Mac fix-it tip I've ever successfully executed. It defies logic, but worked immediately.

CaldwellOne · 07-08-2009, 10:08 AM

First post but thought I should chime in. That weird workaround Worked for me Must have to do with clearing region settings or something...

iMac G5 10.5.6
Matshita UJ-846

wwwluckyro · 07-11-2009, 04:36 AM

The fix did not work for me. I've read pretty much every post in this thread. I also tried by adding U.S. English and moving that around with no luck. I'm going to buy another brand of DVDs.

I'm trying to burn a Leopard image on a DL DVD. The brand of DVD I'm using is Princo. Never heard of it before. I'm using a MacBook Pro unibody to burn it. I rarely used the burner, probably not more than 5 times since I bought it in December.

aussiefaz · 07-12-2009, 01:11 AM

Ok thought Id post on this, first time here.

I tried the voodoo fix and it didnt work, even after 3 attempts at it.

I have a macbookpro with the below specs for dvd burner
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E:

Firmware Revision: ZA0E
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds

As to using the media with dvd+ and dvd- Ive always used the dvd+ and never had any problems until recently. I currently have a 50pack of verbatim dvd+ 16x. The exact same disk that was giving me the error on my macbook pro has now been used to burn the dvd I was attempting to burn, by using the burner in my macmini which is only a month old. I had to pop the file into my public folder and burn it over the network.

I cant see how the media would be the problem when the dvd+ have always worked for me before.

For now I am going to search for more information to see if someone has actually found a real fix for this, as this voodoo one just doesn't cut it as the proper way to go about it.

If anyone has found something that actually works, please let me know.

trinityct · 07-12-2009, 02:59 PM

I can verify that at least one case of this error "...device failed to calibrate the laser" was solved by using a $11 CD/DVD disk cleaner. Mine happened to be from memorex but there are many other brands out there. I'm back in business.

reinvh · 07-13-2009, 07:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by landrick


	I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me: Open System Preferences. Click on "International" Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top, then drag English back to the top. Set "Order for sorted lists" to English Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer) Close System Preferences Restart computer Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...

hi guy's

the fix didn't work for me. what did help me was to clean my lens!
I've had this problem before with toast(before i reinstalled my macbook pro)
and i remember then i also cleaned my lens!

reinvh · 07-13-2009, 09:43 AM

sorry meant laser instead of lens!!

Hawky · 07-14-2009, 03:53 PM

Argh my Macbook Pro is getting this error again and the fix posted at the beginning (language change) is not working this time!

fool · 07-17-2009, 05:46 PM

Hi - I kept getting this error just trying to burn a CD in iTunes on a Macbook Pro core 2 duo with a MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857D optical drive. I don't know anything about the media because someone just gave me a stack of cd-r's that have no markings on them at all. (These are probably older cds.) I finally set the burn speed from "Maximum possible" to 12x and it worked fine. Next one I will try at a faster speed. I usually don't have any trouble with newer media. The console messages were all referencing the burn speed before the crash, so I started there. I'll see how fast of a burning speed I can use on these, until I use them up...

generaljap · 07-18-2009, 03:52 PM

Ok people heres the deal....

I tried EVERY SINGLE TRICK throughout this thread, and none of them worked except for one. I went to Staples and bought a $12 CD Cleaner. It's just a CD with the little brushes on the bottom to clean the laser. IF YOU HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING BUT THIS I URGE YOU TO TRY IT. I tried compressed air but that did nothing so don't think because you tried that it rules out a CD cleaner working. Below are the specs for my computer and drive. MY ONLY PROBLEM HAS BEEN BURNING DL DVD's. EVERYTHING else burnt just fine. So if this sounds similar to your situation I suggest you go get a cd cleaner.

Macbook Pro late 2007 model

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E: Firmware Revision: ZA0E

I am currently burning a DL DVD for a xbox 360 backup game using OSx360. I'm using Verbatim DVD+DL.

I suspect that if the language and other misc software related tricks have worked for you then cleaning your laser may not be the solution for you. I would think then your fix would be somehow software related. I received the fail to calibrate laser power message almost instantly upon trying to burn a DL DVD and nothing changed after any of these proposed solutions except of course for the disc cleaner.

Hopefully the disc works and finishes burning. Good luck to the rest of you.

06-05-2009, 06:32 AM	#221
mrbigpappa Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 1	I think I figure this out. I was thinking that the whole language reset fix was strange so I looked at the fix and saw the only logical part of the fix that could effect any change on my computer was at the end of the fix when it instructed me to restart my computer. So I skipped everything else in the fix and only restarted my computer and it fixed my problem. So yes the fix worked but anything that you would have told me to do before restarting my computer would have worked as well. I have a new fix. Send me $20 then restart your computer and it will work.... Just a thought..... :-)

06-06-2009, 12:37 PM	#222
Ollie Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 1	The "Fix" worked for me Hi everyone, Joined this thread as I also wanted to confirm that the fix worked for me and I have had no problems since. I was also getting problems with Toast and now these errors have gone as well. I am using Matshita DVD-R UJ-846 drive. I know its hard to believe for some, but I tried to burn some files using Disk Utility on to a TDK DVD +R several times and got the error and the disk was ejected after 10 seconds. After trying the fix, I used the same disk and it worked. So I can't see how it could be a fault with the quality of the disks. Hope it works for more of you

06-12-2009, 08:07 PM	#223
justin6512 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 1	Compressed Air I was having these same issues so I went down to the store and bought some compressed air. I gave my super drive a good blast and whalaa, it's fixed. My MBP is just under 2 years old, and I haven't done a lot of burning so I knew it couldn't be a dead drive. The tech at my local Mac shop said the same laser in the super drive is used to read / write, but when you write to a disc the laser is using a much higher voltage. If you have a slightly dirty lens then it is possible the laser cannot reach the correct voltage to burn. Hope this works!

06-18-2009, 10:47 AM	#224
ThreeBKK MVP Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Bangkok Posts: 1,626	I finally found a reason to burn a DVD yesterday, and I repeatedly got the calibration error message. Over the past two days I must have tried more than a dozen times to burn the same .dmg onto the same DVD+RW using the same Mac. Rebooting didn't fix the problem. I put the PowerBook to sleep for about 20 or 30 minutes until it was cool to the touch. Immediately after waking the Mac I tried burning the disc again and it worked. High internal temperature seems to have been the cause of the failure in my case. The fix that started this post was next on my list of things to try. __________________ ➤ Think it's a good idea to put your most intimate data on someone else's server? Macmini5,2 ❖ 2.7 GHz Core i7 ❖ Snow Leopard ❖ Mtn Lion Last edited by ThreeBKK; 06-18-2009 at 10:51 AM.

06-18-2009, 04:45 PM	#225
Marlboro Man Triple-A Player Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 199	Was trying to burn a DVD a few days ago, got the silly unable to calibrate error in Burn, Toast, and Disk Utility, on disk after disk. Called AppleCare yesterday and had a pleasant chat with the rep. He didn't really recommend anything I hadn't tried, but he was pleasant and chatty, so I really didn't mind all that much. I was instructed to reset the SMC & NVRAM, which I had already done, create new user account and try there (no luck), then repair permissions (worked once). Basically a wasted 45 minutes, but at least the fellow was pleasant and spoke good English, unlike my previous experiences with PC tech support. Changing media solved the problem. While I tried the voodoo suggested early on which met with failure, I suspect the problem in my case is mostly media related. I luckily had three different brands of DVD at my disposal: Verbatim -R (several years old, found around the house during the nonburning nightmare), Sony +R and the Apple branded -R. The Sony +R's work about 25% of the time, the Apple -R has a 50% success rate, while the Verbatim -R's worked every single time, out of a spindle of 50. I'm far from an expert, but it seems the Apple drives are quite a bit more finicky with media, as the same disks my MBP spit out burned fine on a five year old Dell. __________________ "Enjoy every sandwich." - Warren Zevon

06-19-2009, 01:05 AM	#226
awhitty Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 1	It works Just to add another case in support of this solution. Using Leopard 10.5.7.

06-19-2009, 01:52 PM	#227
ThreeBKK MVP Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Bangkok Posts: 1,626	I almost forgot. Drive used: MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-835E Firmware revision: GAND Media type: Verbatim DVD+RW (single layer) 1-4x I had only a single disc that I tried burning over and over again. __________________ ➤ Think it's a good idea to put your most intimate data on someone else's server? Macmini5,2 ❖ 2.7 GHz Core i7 ❖ Snow Leopard ❖ Mtn Lion

06-20-2009, 04:07 PM	#228
untamedpeace Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 1	worked for me too I got the same error message on my mac book pro after having to hard bootdown in midst of a dvd burn attempt that made a loud noise (possibly because of a sticker on disc) and then wouldn't stop spinning.. i googled the errormessage and found this forum as one of the top hits... first i figured i'd need to get a disc cleaning cd but of course decided to try the "incredible fix" first seems to straighten up a wrinkle in puters thinking process or something and the exact disc (bunch of jpg pictures) burned right away... so i'm posting cos -yes i too am a new name here" but i've never before been as surprised by a fix and i often come on forums in search for answers and it deserves more people knowing it... ps standard SEO would explain that this thread gets top spots since it's got a lot more followup posts than the others under same category... don't have anything to do with what google deems a likely source to have mac answers

06-27-2009, 10:27 PM	#229
Plagued Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 1	I have a Macbook Pro My disc drive is: MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857: Firmware Revision: HAE4 Interconnect: ATAPI Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive) Cache: 2048 KB Reads DVD: Yes CD-Write: -R, -RW DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO Media: Type: CD-ROM Blank: No Erasable: No Overwritable: No Appendable: No Okay, so I tried that incredible fix, which doesn't work. Secondly I used Dust Off, the compressed air, which worked perfectly. Figured I should make an account to post a working (for me at least) solution. TRY CLEANING YOUR WITH COMPRESSED AIR.

07-01-2009, 07:03 AM	#230
normand Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 1	Unable to calibrate the laser power...... I have been experiencing the same problem but only when attempting to backup my Itunes library. After several attempts, four different types of media, DVD and CD, nothing worked. I also tried the strange fix noted here and that didn't work either. Over the last couple of years, I have been consistently loosing the same Itunes store purchased songs over and over. I then decided to see if this was a drive problem and burned an Itunes playlist, which worked just fine. CDs and DVDs also function properly in playback mode. I contacted my local Apple store and was surprised to find that there was a customer in store at the very moment with exactly the same problem, however, she is dealing with the issue on a PC. So, am I thinking that this is an Itunes software issue? Has anyone gotten a response from Apple regarding the problem? thanks

07-02-2009, 04:15 PM	#231
chrisbaskind Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 1	This shouldn't work, but it does OK, I'm a suspicious new member with a single post, but the screen name is my real name and I'd respond to administrator emails confirming that. This "incredible fix" has no business working, but it did for my dualie G5 PowerMac with a Sony DVD RW DW-U10A drive. I'd largely given up trying to burn media. Toast's error messages weren't helpful, but I decided to give it a shot in Disk Utility and received a more verbose failure. Googled the error message, which brought me here. This is by far the most bizarre Mac fix-it tip I've ever successfully executed. It defies logic, but worked immediately.

07-08-2009, 10:08 AM	#232
CaldwellOne Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 1	+1 First post but thought I should chime in. That weird workaround Worked for me Must have to do with clearing region settings or something... iMac G5 10.5.6 Matshita UJ-846

07-11-2009, 04:36 AM	#233
wwwluckyro Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 1	The fix did not work for me. I've read pretty much every post in this thread. I also tried by adding U.S. English and moving that around with no luck. I'm going to buy another brand of DVDs. I'm trying to burn a Leopard image on a DL DVD. The brand of DVD I'm using is Princo. Never heard of it before. I'm using a MacBook Pro unibody to burn it. I rarely used the burner, probably not more than 5 times since I bought it in December.

07-12-2009, 01:11 AM	#234
aussiefaz Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 1	Ok thought Id post on this, first time here. I tried the voodoo fix and it didnt work, even after 3 attempts at it. I have a macbookpro with the below specs for dvd burner MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E: Firmware Revision: ZA0E Interconnect: ATAPI Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive) Cache: 2048 KB Reads DVD: Yes CD-Write: -R, -RW DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds As to using the media with dvd+ and dvd- Ive always used the dvd+ and never had any problems until recently. I currently have a 50pack of verbatim dvd+ 16x. The exact same disk that was giving me the error on my macbook pro has now been used to burn the dvd I was attempting to burn, by using the burner in my macmini which is only a month old. I had to pop the file into my public folder and burn it over the network. I cant see how the media would be the problem when the dvd+ have always worked for me before. For now I am going to search for more information to see if someone has actually found a real fix for this, as this voodoo one just doesn't cut it as the proper way to go about it. If anyone has found something that actually works, please let me know.

07-12-2009, 02:59 PM	#235
trinityct Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 1	I can verify that at least one case of this error "...device failed to calibrate the laser" was solved by using a $11 CD/DVD disk cleaner. Mine happened to be from memorex but there are many other brands out there. I'm back in business.

07-13-2009, 09:43 AM	#237
reinvh Prospect Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 2	sorry meant laser instead of lens!!

07-14-2009, 03:53 PM	#238
Hawky Prospect Join Date: May 2009 Location: England Posts: 9	Argh my Macbook Pro is getting this error again and the fix posted at the beginning (language change) is not working this time! __________________ Macbook Pro 15.4" OS: Mac OS X 10.6.1 \| CPU: 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo \| RAM: 4GB 1067HMz DDR3 \| GPU: nVidia 9400M 256mb & nVidia 9600M GT 512mb \| HDD: 320GB Internal & 1x 1TB 1x 500GB External HDD Other: 24" Dell S2409W FullHD 1080p 60hz LCD Monitor iPod: 80GB iPod Video

07-17-2009, 05:46 PM	#239
fool Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 1	Hi - I kept getting this error just trying to burn a CD in iTunes on a Macbook Pro core 2 duo with a MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857D optical drive. I don't know anything about the media because someone just gave me a stack of cd-r's that have no markings on them at all. (These are probably older cds.) I finally set the burn speed from "Maximum possible" to 12x and it worked fine. Next one I will try at a faster speed. I usually don't have any trouble with newer media. The console messages were all referencing the burn speed before the crash, so I started there. I'll see how fast of a burning speed I can use on these, until I use them up...

07-18-2009, 03:52 PM	#240
generaljap Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 1	Ok people heres the deal.... I tried EVERY SINGLE TRICK throughout this thread, and none of them worked except for one. I went to Staples and bought a $12 CD Cleaner. It's just a CD with the little brushes on the bottom to clean the laser. IF YOU HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING BUT THIS I URGE YOU TO TRY IT. I tried compressed air but that did nothing so don't think because you tried that it rules out a CD cleaner working. Below are the specs for my computer and drive. MY ONLY PROBLEM HAS BEEN BURNING DL DVD's. EVERYTHING else burnt just fine. So if this sounds similar to your situation I suggest you go get a cd cleaner. Macbook Pro late 2007 model MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E: Firmware Revision: ZA0E I am currently burning a DL DVD for a xbox 360 backup game using OSx360. I'm using Verbatim DVD+DL. I suspect that if the language and other misc software related tricks have worked for you then cleaning your laser may not be the solution for you. I would think then your fix would be somehow software related. I received the fail to calibrate laser power message almost instantly upon trying to burn a DL DVD and nothing changed after any of these proposed solutions except of course for the disc cleaner. Hopefully the disc works and finishes burning. Good luck to the rest of you.