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

[sterytyper]

Hey guys, i have the same problem. i have a PowerMac G4, with version 10.5.5 of leopard. i was burning a cd from itunes this morning, the message came up that all of you guys are having....so i kept lowering the burn rate from 20x, to 12x, to 2x....same thing happened...


so i went to software update and one update was Mac OsX update blahblahblah and that was about 300MB...so i said..ohh this might fix the problem! so i update it, restart the computer and it worked!...so i burned one right after and the problem came back...so i went back to software update and i didnt get to read all of it..but one of the items said "CD/DVD somethingsomething" so i thought that would fix it....same problem.

what do i do?!!??!!! should i buy a cd drive cleaner or what?

ps: i called apple support - they were useless and wasted 2 hours of my time.

[ron2you]

I have a 15" MBP running 10.5.5 with a MATSHITA optical drive that was giving me the calibration error. Sequence of frustrating steps:

1) Imported video from camcorder to iMovie, exported to iDVD, then tried to burn to DVD. Error...
2) Then, created files from iDVD and tried to burn them directly (select folder then hit burn under the file menu). Error...
3) Created disk image from iDVD and tried to burn image with disc utility. Error...
4) Copied files (from 2) to thumb drive over to 17" MBP using same media that was rejected on the 15". Burned DVD w/o problem!
5) Back on 15", tried the language preference suggestions. Error...
6) Reset the SMC. Error...
7) Reset PRAM and NVRAM. Error...
8) Took to Apple Store had them replace drive and now it works:

Model: HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N
Revision: AP09
Serial Number: K5588PG2723
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
Low Power Polling: Yes

One other strange observation, while having those errors MATSHITA drive would only allow up to 4x burn when it should burn at 8x. New drive worked at 8x...strangeness. -ron

[sufrin]

Curiouser and curiouser.

I managed to write and check a DVD-RW on the same device that failed to write a DVD-R. That DVD-RW now reads on other drives, but shows up as blank on the drive on which it was written; as do other DVD-RWs written elsewhere.

Reading the other posts leads me to believe that this may be a software (or firmware) problem: it affects people with different machines and different kinds of drive.

[binur]

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...

Wow Landrick !! This fix worked for me.

I've created my profile in this forum just now only, that too just to appreciate Landrick for his findings. I was getting the error message just before applying this fix, and after applying this fix I was able to write on the same blank DVD (Sony DVD-R) that was rejected earlier.

To all you people who doesn't believe that a region fix on an Apple machine can affect DVD writing, please know that Apple implements Digital Rights Management (DRM) very strongly on all their softwares and hardwares, and some times a bug in that can cause strange issues like this. To be noted that "failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media" issue happens only for DVD writers (of any brand) on Apple machines.

I also have an iPhone 3G from Apple, on which earlier the applications use to crash if there are a lot of applications or sometimes for no reason after a Sync with iTunes in my MacBookPro. I thought that my iPhone was defective one. But later some genius came up with a solution to use an older version of iTunes (by cleaning the existing iTunes completely and resetting the iPhone) and syncing with that. That was like an impossible fix, but worked super. When investigated further, I understood that older version iTunes was having a weaker DRM and that's why Apple came up with a new version within a week time (by incrementing the version number from 7.7.0 to 7.7.1), by implementing strong DRM but in a crappy way, so that even if users may suffer a bit, the Digital Rights are PROTECTED. Now a days I never apply the iTunes update until I get good feedback from other iPhone users.

Coming back to this issue, it seems that there are 3 different issues that users are here with.

a) Issue with Region settings :- Cases where the user is not able to write on the DVDs of the same brand that he/she has tried successfully many times earlier. Also in this case the user should be able to read a DVD and read/write a CD (CD's and CD writers doesn't have region settings) on the drive.

b) Issues with DVD writer lens :- In most such cases, the DVD drive will not even accept any disk for reading, and on slot drives, the disks are expected to be ejected in 10 seconds.

c) Issues with DVD media :- If this is the case, we should be able to trace it down by trying with a different brand and different type (+R/-R) disk. This could be a possibility only if that drive has never been successful in writing on a DVD of that particular type or brand.

The fix from Landrick is only for case (a) above.

The details about my machine are as below:

Machine : MacBookPro 15"
OS : Mac OS 10.5.5 (Leopard)
Drive : MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857D
Firmware Revision : KCVB
Disk : Sony DVD-R
Location : India

[malhussaini]

After trying a bunch of different disc brands and letting the drive cool off and retrying using different programs to no avail.
Then I stumbled on this thread, did the international reorder thing and it worked. I suspect that it or something in the process triggers some kind of refresh.
It worked without a restart!

[adriantoll]

Another addition for feedback - tried the voodoo fix, nothing doing, then used a lens cleaner and it started burning first time.

[Scoobysnackster]

OK I had to sign up for an account just to report that this silly fix actually worked. I tried twice to burn a DVD+R DL disc. Twice I made a half burned coaster. I suspect the laser power calibration problem occurred when the burner started writing the second layer of the DVD. Both times I ended up with an incomplete and unmountable burn, but both times I could see that the DVD was burned almost to the outer edges of the media.

I was super skeptical about the language shuffle, but I had a fresh pack of 25 DVDs and thought wasting one more wouldn't kill me. I was gob smacked when it worked.

For the nay sayers, the system had just failed to write a DVD. I went to the international control panel and switched French to the top of the list and then switched English back to the top of the list. I then set "Word Break" to English (United States, Computer), as the instructions indicate. I logged out of the account, but did not restart the Mac. When I logged back in I went to Disk Utility and started burning my disk image. It wrote completely and verified successfully. Crazy!?

I've supported Macs for several years and never come across anything so obscure. I was a skeptic till it worked. The system was a Mac Pro Dual Core 2.66 GHz running 10.4.11. The drive is the SONY DVD RW DW-D150A which was installed at the Apple factory. I haven't tried burning a second DVD to comment on weather this is something that needs to be repeated for every burn. It worked and for now thats good enough.

[southwesteight]

Hi

My MacBookPro is a few months old and until last week I hadn't tried burning a DVD, but when I did I received the dreaded error message "Device Failed to Calibrate Laser Power level..."

I've read every post on this thread so far, thanks for the info, I've tried the SMU remove the battery thing it didn't work, I've logged in as a brand new user and that didn't work, I've tried the international voodoo method and unsurprisingly that didn't work either, I've tried reducing the speed; creating an image file; burning from a Video TS folder; I even tried to burn a DATA DVD but everything brings up the same error messages - "Device Failed to Calibrate Laser Power level" or "Sense Key - Medium Error"

I've been using TOAST 7 TITANIUM and DISC UTILITY, The Blank DVDs are Sony DVD-R x16, my internal Burner is a MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-867, Firmware Revision: HA13, DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW, Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO.

--------------------

BUT I THINK I'VE WORKED IT OUT, MAYBE...

The blank Sony DVD-Rs im using are allegedly a NEW STANDARD of high quality DVD-R which require me to check compatibility with my Burner/MacBookPro first. I went to the Apple website to find an update but I didn't see anything specific to my Macbook or even to Superdrives. CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHERE I CAN UPGRADE MY SUPERDRIVE FIRMWARE???

Tomorrow i'll buy some new blank DVDS anyway, probably Verbatium, but I've got the feeling that my MacBookPro needs to be updated so its compatible with the Sony DVD-Rs I already have.

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, I'LL POST BACK ONCE I'VE GOT A DIFFERENT DVD-R PACK.

[ThreeBKK]

Just for future reference, SuperDrive firmware updates can be found here:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...ware_hardware/

I didn't see any updates for your hardware, southwesteight. Maybe Panasonic (MATSHITA, Matsushita) has an update on their website, but I didn't check.

Are you a recent Windows switcher? I'd guess you are because people who have used Windows for a while generally think they have to scour the internet looking for obscure driver updates. That usually isn't necessary in the Macintosh ecosystem, although there is the occasional exception.

I'd guess that you'll achieve success when you change the DVD media brand.

You might also try:
• cleaning the lens with a kit.
• taking the drive to AppleCare to have the drive swapped out.

[tn_goober]

Quote: Originally Posted by cocotu I have been looking for this answer since this morning with no resolution. This morning using Disk Utility I was trying to burn an .iso image. I have done it before successfully. Then I go the error indicated in the subject: The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media. This is the log from Disk Utility: Aug 28 09:58:11: Disk Utility started. Burning Image "<file.iso>" Preparing data for burn Opening session Opening track Writing track Closing session Finishing burn Burn failed The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media. Unable to burn "<file.iso>"- The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media.. I doing the burning in another mac and is working fine. I'm having this problem in the server.

Ok heres the deal-

I am running an MBP 2.33GHz using OSX 10.4.11. I have been trying to burn a dmg onto a Dual Layer DVD. I first tried burning it in Toast 9.2. I got a whole bunch of errors, I can't remember exactly. Then using Disk Utility- got that same error everyone has been getting- laser can not be calibrated... -- That International-Languages "fix" did NOT work for me. Third times the charm so in finder I opened a new burn folder, dragged the mounted dmg into the folder and clicked burn. That was 90 min ago and the progress bar still says 'state: Opening session 1' and 'Percent complete:' has nothing at all next to it.

In my "About this mac->more info" it tells me I have a Matsushita DVD UJ-857D Firmware revision KCVB and it is capable of burning DVD+R DL Disks. I can't seem to find any firmware upgrades that are available for my system. I am using Memorex DVD+R DL 2.4x disks. I have no Idea where to find the speed that my drive normally writes at.

I really need help figuring out what to do here. should I risk cancelling the burn and risk damaging the disk as it warns me it will if I cancel before it finishes. But its been over 90min and barely seems to have started any progress at all. It is making my entire system sluggish.

Where do I go, what do I download, what do I buy. Is it a matter of finding some obscure website that will have a fix. Is burning a Dual Layer from the finder supposed to take this long. Do I need a different brand of blank DVD? Is there some reason the information in my system profiler be misleading in terms of the format of blank media that my hardware can handle.

please anyone. I could really use some real good advice.
thank you in advance.

[tranquil.not]

Got into this problem yesterday after trying to burn my first double layer DVD with my 24" iMac (2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo - 1Gb SDRAM). I had bought 25 Memorex 8x DVD+R DL (all the other brands were 2.4x so I thought this was the best). First recording went bad at 50% so I found this thread and tried the voodoo (how does one come up with that???!!?). On my second try the burning paused for at least 2 hours at 50%. The computer sounded as a guy with asthma breathing slowly for all this time. At the end it gave up and gave me the "device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media" message. So today I went out looking for Verbatim discs but I only found a 10 pack Sony 2.4x but which had a little AccuCORE logo on the bottom. That worked! Thanks to all!

PS: Anybody want some Memorex double layer DVDs?

[moritzvd]

I've read through the whole thread, I tried the "International" Method and a PRAM Reset, after that I called AppleCare, I will bring it to Service on Tueseday.

My Setup:
MacBook Pro (early 08)
MATSHITADVD-R UJ-867

Read DVD's check
Read CD's check
Burn DVD's does not work
Burn CD'S check

[Guitarplayer119]

I don't know why, but it worked, thanks!

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...

I haven't been able to burn a DVD since I can't remember when. It really irritated me and I have looked in forums before for that stupid laser calibration error. Today I needed to burn a DVD and once gain I tried, and failed. Rebooted, tried and failed. Disgusted I looked again and found this rediculous post. My thought was this was some A-hole jerking our chains for fun. But it was utterly harmless to try and so I did. I just finished burning what I think is the first DVD on my Macbook Pro since I've owned it. It worked perfectly and on the first try. I'm stunned honestly. It doesn't make any sense but it worked like a charm for me. I think I'll burn a CD now just to make sure that still works the way it should.

To all you doubting eggheads who scoff at the idea as witchcraft and not science, figure it out. It works. There must be a reason why.
And to all of you who question the validity of the posts always coming fropm newbies...did it ever occur to you that this worked is so incredible that we needed to sign up just to post it.

Awesome and strange !

[bobtheiss]

The trick did not work for me now but I found some interesting info which might be relevant to the topic.

When I first experienced the problem I have tried to write TDK DVD+R for 3 times and then 3 different discs from the same brand too. I just wrote the brand to show that I did not use any noname brand. I got the error message each time and I get it ever since.

But, here comes the interesting part, whenever I try to write DVD-R I have totally no problems doing so. The same happens with CD-R or CD-RW. I never tried to write any DVD+R DL so I have no experiences with that. My assumption is that the issue has something to do with the +R format because if you read trough the posts, most people had problems related to DVD+R or DVD+R DL. Is this somehow possible? What do you think?

I have a MacBook Pro 2.33 15" which I bought 2 years ago and a MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857D. I also installed all the software updates that came out and I run Leopard.

[johngpt]

Quote: Originally Posted by sporkmaster69 I just finished burning what I think is the first DVD on my Macbook Pro since I've owned it.

How had it gone trying to get your mbp serviced since it seems to have had this problem since you've had it? Are you the original owner? In some earlier posts in this thread, newer macs that have had this problem had their optical drive/burners exchanged under warranty, and have had no problem with burning after that.

Johngpt,
I am the original owner and I never had it serviced. It just never worked for me and I wasn't concerned enough most of the time to care, or in a situation where I despreately needed it to work. Mostly it was because I was out of CDs and had a stack of DVDs. Regardless, the DVD burner never worked until I did that rediculous fix. Go figure.

[tyee]

Just tried the seemingly ridiculous solution and succeeded in burning a DVD.

I'm using an external firewire DVD burner and had been getting "verification failed" messages prior to this (no fancy hex numbers in my errors though). Verification would stop and the progress bar hadn't moved any. For what it's worth, in the last couple of weeks I had done a wipe and re-install of my system--Mac OS X 10.4.11. Before re-installing, DVD burning worked without a problem! Who knows!!

[Shroombaker]

Quote: Originally Posted by Shroombaker Note: Burning DVD-Rs work just dandy. It's a problem with the dual layer media.

I have a stack of DVD+Rs that fail continuously on burns. Using the freeware Burn application, I am given write speeds of 2.4x (?), 4x, 8x, Maximum. The burns fail every time.

On a whim, I purchased a stack of DVD-Rs. Now when I use shareware Burn, I get writing options of different speeds (1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, Maximum). I can now burn at 1x, 2x, 4x, etc., without problems.

So, try switching blank DVDs from the '+' to the '-' type (or vice versa) if you're having problems "calibrating the laser" while burning.

Cheers,
Shroombaker

[ThreeBKK]

Shroombaker:

What Mac model are you using? Were they dual layer discs? Until just recently most Mac models haven't supported dual layer +R media. Dual layer -R media has been supported for longer, and on more machines. Double check your Mac's capabilities in System Profiler.