Burning issues - worth replacing?

Recently, I've been getting the error message that says "The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media" every time I try to burn a CD. Having checked the forums, I see that reducing burn time (in disk utility? I burn using iTunes - not sure what the differences are between the types of burning) and using different brands will probably help. However, as I used to be able to burn the brand of CDs I'm using just fine and as my computer has been taking much longer than usual to load CDs and DVDs of any sort, I'm wondering if the drive is just worn out. I can tinker with it to fix it, but I'd rather it just work like it used to on its own. I need to go to an apple store tomorrow anyway, and I'm still under extended warranty. Would it be worth my time to take my computer in and try to get the drive replaced?
I really appreciate your input!

To Apple Discussions!
"and I'm still under extended warranty. Would it be worth my time to take my computer in and try to get the drive replaced?"
Of course. That is what a warranty is for. Get your $$$ worth. Besides, you will get an answer faster than waiting for one on a message board.
*A few things to try before you take your computer in for repairs:*
Repair permissions. It is recommended that you should do so anyway after each burning session.
Another help source (if you haven't already done so).
Go to your OS Help Menu. In the search field type cd
Click on all the troubleshooting topics & Support Articles that pertain to your issue.
You can also do the same in Disk Utility. Open same up.
At the bottom left of the window, click on the purple button w/the "?" in the middle.
This will bring up the Help Menu.
===============
Try a different brand. Some superdrives get very picky after a few hundred CD/DVDs.
Make sure the DVDs are not dirty, smudged and/or scratched.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=50448 How to Handle and Clean CD and DVD Discs
Your drive may need cleaning. Cleaning kits can be purchased from any store that sells CD/DVDs.

Similar Messages

Yet another CD burning issue--won't finish "finishing"

The subject pretty much says it all. When I try burning a CD, the computer seems to go through the process just fine until the status becomes "Burning disc.....finishing," at which time, it stops. iTunes still works and is responsive, but the CD won't finish.
I've also tried burning discs with Windows Media Player, but it doesn't seem to work either.
Immediate responses would be greatly appreciated--I need to burn a disc as a gift ASAP!
Thanks in advance.
(Please note that at the time I ran the diagnostics, it still said it was "Burning disc.....finishing." Not sure if that's relevant or not, but figured it was worth noting anyway.)
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Emachines xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
iTunes 7.0.2.16
CD Driver 2.0.6.1
CD Driver DLL 2.0.6.1
LowerFilters: PxHelp20 (2.0.0.0),
UpperFilters: GEARAspiWDM (2.0.6.1),
Video Driver: Intel(r) 82810E Graphics Controller\Intel(R) 82810 Graphics Controller
IDE\DiskWDCWD800BB-00JHC0_____________________05.01C05, Bus Type ATA, Bus Address [0,0]
IDE\CdRomSAMSUNGCD-R/RW_SW-224B_________________R201___
Could not open CD handler, 5. Problem with installation of drive in Windows or drive contains copy protected CD.
Current user is an administrator.
D: SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-224B, Rev R201
Drive is empty.
The last failed audio CD burn had error code 4220(0x0000107c). It happened on drive D: SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-224B on CDR media at speed 12X.

hmmmmm.
i think i found your drivers and downloads page at Emachines:
Emachines T-series T1150
but there's not a lot of items of interest available there.
on the other hand, according to Samsung's support site, there's a newer version of the firmware available for your SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-224B. you've got R201, and they have R205 available for download:
Samsung SW-224B
so it might be prudent to contact your Emachines technical support, tell them you're troubleshooting a burning issue, and asking them if the newer R205 firmware is compatible with the particular Emachines system that you have.

Is it worth replacing the battery on my 4 year old macbook pro?

I purchased my macbook pro 13 inch basic model summer 2009.
The battery is basically dead so I have to keep it plugged in all the time.
I'm wondering if it is worth replacing the battery this late?
Should I just wait it out until I have to buy a new laptop?
How long does a macbook generally last?
Thanks!

of course - i'm still using my late 08 Macbook Unibody and have no issues.
if your Macbook Pro still works for you - spend the extra $$$ and replace the battery - if you want it to last even longer - upgrade the RAM to 8GB and change the hard drive to SSD.
tolal investment = $50(RAM) $100 - $150 (battery) $100 - $200 (SSD) = $400 Max and you'll end up with a very fast macbook pro.

Itunes 8.01 cd burning issues. Please Help

wondering if anyone else has been experiencing the same issue i have in itunes 8.01. When i burn a disc now i have an array of issues. 1st, with the same media i used successfully before, sometimes when i attempt to burn a audio cd i get a dialog box that reads burn disc fail, unable to calibrate the laser for this media. It happens at various write speeds, so not sure what wrong. Also the few disc i was successful in burning skip during playback and will-not play in certain cd players. The bottom of the disc is scratch-less and everything appears normal. Lost at the moment. Anyone have a solution or suggestions please help. Or is their a certain type of cd that works best.
thank you
bac

Just got it back from the shop? Did you mention the CD burning issues when you took it in? It really sounds to me like you have drive problems more than iTunes problems. The difference is indicated by whether or not Finder recognizes any given disk or not.
If Finder does not recognize that the drive has a disk in it or can't read the disk, that is most likely a drive problem and is best resolved by Apple service.
A possible long term, spend money option is to purchase a good external optical drive. If you burn lots of disks, this option makes more sense. I have a LaCie drive that burns all the current formats plus has Light Scribe capability. I don't recall getting a coaster out of it. Plus I can move it from computer to computer.
"1 coaster in 5 with 7" means that he got 1 bad disk out of 5 burns with iTunes version 7. If you have been using Time Machine than you can restore the application from the applications folder some time back, when you had a previous version of iTunes. If not, restoring an older version becomes more tricky and I have to rely on the advice of others to tell us how to do that.
If you are not backing up your system with Time Machine or something else (Time Machine is really the best, I think), back up a couple files from your iTunes folder. Copy and save somewhere the 'iTunes Library' file as well as the 'iTunes Music Library.xml' file. If something happens and all your library info (a list of all the music you've added plus playlists, etc) can be restored by simply replacing those files in your iTunes folder with the ones you saved somewhere else. You need to update the saved files periodically as you add music or otherwise change things in your iTunes, but that is no big deal. Just periodically re-copy the files to the place where they are saved and click 'Replace' in the pop-up when prompted.
Hope this helps. Please let me know.
Robert

Screen has lines running through it, is it worth replacing screen?

Screen has lines funning through it, is it worth replacing screen on 2009 iMac?

What do you mean by lines running through it? There have been users with vertical lines, sometimes blue, or yellow, or pink, or combinations. Those have all turned out to be a bad graphics unit chip that the Apple store techs were able to remove and replace without replacing the entire logic board.
Take it to an Apple store genius bar and have the techs test and advise on how to resolve this.

Is it worth replacing HD?

I have a six and a half year old iMac model 2104 which has been fantastic. After doing some research I think my hard drive is failing.
I'm hearing clicking sounds and get a folder icon with a ? in it when I boot up. To get it to boot up sometimes takes three attempts and inserting my installation disk.
So, my question is, is it worth replacing the HD or should I just buy a new iMac?
Thanks,
Peter

Yes you could, I put a larger HD in my Early 2006 Intel iMac almost 3 years ago and it still work fine for the Grandkids to work and play games on.
see > iMac Intel - iFixit
However if you want or need to keep up to date with both Hardware and Software, then you would be better off buying a new or newer iMac.

My iPhone 4S shuts down when it says it's still got charge... Is it worth replacing the battery

I charged my phone to 100% and the charge went down really quickly. It then turned off at 25% and a few minutes later turned back on if I hold down the two buttons then turned of again at about 15%. I keep turning it back on to get it really low so I could recalibrate the battery and the charge still went down really quickly and this time it turned off at about 9% but then charged it not to full and it turned off at 20%
Is it worth replacing the battery or is there something else making this happen?

If the phone is no longer under warranty, you can get a new battery at a third party like ifixit.com and any tools you might need to replace it.

Can't burn issues error code 4250-4280

After several failed attempts at solving my burning issues with Apple support (who had no idea what to do) I have found something out. The new "Protected AAC" formatted songs will cause a "failed burn" error message. I own 2 different computers and have tried 2 different types of CD-Rs. I have found that Windows Media Player will burn just fine, and that in iTunes I can burn all my old music (under "kind" look for "AAC audio file") just fine also. So I seem to have norrowed it down to Apple's new protected formats called "Protected AAC audio file"
So far this is all I've got. Anyone else have any ideas?
Windows XP Sony Vaio & Gateway Notebook
Windows XP Sony Vaio & Gateway Notebook

-54 is a Permissions error that's right ...
What are you trying to copy/burn ?
What version of Toast are you running ?
Remove the DivX QuickTime Plug-In and try burning again as it can mess up some burns ...

For All Serious Burning Issues!!

If you are having serious burning issues and error messages, and after you have freed up atleast 5 gb of HD space on your STARTUP drive (Startup is the drive that your OS is running on) then go to:
http://superdrive.cynikal.net/
and download the appropriate Superdrive firmware for your computer. i have used this site several times. Make sure you follow the directions. This is a major change to the software that runs inside of your superdrive, but it usually does the trick for me when I have issues. If you have previously updated your firmware, and are now having issues, go back to the original firmware and see if that works, (it usually does for me). I have updated several times, and never had any issues. My superdrive is atleast 2 and a half years old with heavy use.
Not sure if Apple approves of doing this, but they don't seem to ever be very helpful with error messages, so this is the best solution for me.

Not really. You only need enough space to cover the amount of data being burned to the disc, which in most cases is 4.7 gb. You will need more if you are burning larger dvd's and/or dual layer. For years, I have only kept roughly 5 gb available on my system and haven't had any problems.

Image burn issue

Hi all, I am having the image burn issue on my sony vaio duo 11 like. Please check the following link for the images. In my case the burn is visible when the background is grey and I work in the desktop mode for some time. I request your feedback and help in solving this issue. http://bit.ly/11FTG08 [with comments] See the bottom. You can see Windows notification area there   You can clearly see a white navigation bar of google chrome which is opened in the desktop mode
  I have taken all of these pictures with my mobile camera which is 3 years old. Otherwise the imageburn is very clear and distinct to me. Best regards,Naveen.

kamesh419,
This is working as intended. It is the transparent function of Aero. If the user switches back to desktop view, you can see some of the Start Menu background. This is not a burn in issue.
If you want you can turn off Aero and the transparent image will go away both in the Start Menu and also from the Desktop view.
Turn off Aero
1)      Go to the Start Menu
2)      Type Computer
3)      Right click on Computer and select properties
4)      Click on Advanced System settings
5)      Select Settings under Performance
6)      Select “Adjust for best performance”
7)      Click apply and ok.
kamesh419 wrote:
Hi all,
I am having the image burn issue on my sony vaio duo 11 like. Please check the following link for the images. In my case the burn is visible when the background is grey and I work in the desktop mode for some time. I request your feedback and help in solving this issue.
http://bit.ly/11FTG08 [with comments]
See the bottom. You can see Windows notification area there
You can clearly see a white navigation bar of google chrome which is opened in the desktop mode
I have taken all of these pictures with my mobile camera which is 3 years old. Otherwise the imageburn is very clear and distinct to me.
Best regards,
Naveen.

OSS 3D caused iTunes burning issues

A bit of information for those that have iTunes burning issues.
I installed OSS 3D v 1.62, a sound enhancer programme for iTunes on 14/08/06 and started having CD burning issues... iTunes wouldn't burn beyond 2 tracks and then froze before "finishing".
On uninstalling OSS 3D today 19/08/06, the iTunes problem I encountered were fixed.
If you have issues re burning check recently installed software.

update ... ran sfc /scannow as admin. windows reports 100% integrity.

Found solution to my CD burning issues

I posted a response to SoFLPhillyFan concerning my CD
burning issues. I may have been a bit hasty (sorry Apple).
I use MSI auto update for my chipset drivers. The auto
update indicated that I had the most recent drivers. This
was not true, as nVidia had a slightly more recent version.
Updating my chipset drivers solved the problem and I can
now burn CD's. Still, I did not have this problem prior to
the 7.X iTunes update (hmmmm....).

Try placing the iPod in Recovery mode and then restore via iTunes.

Let's all contact Apple about CD imports and burning issues

While reading through the posts here, it appears that there are alot of us with issues dealing with iTunes and CD imports and CD burning. Even using Quicktime 7.1.3, I still cannot even play a CD track. I can use other applications to import music, but the bottom line is that iTunes should let us import CD tracks. It doesn't. If you are having problems with these slow CD imports, or CD burning with iTunes 7, then we all need to contact Apple. I suggest that instead of trying to find a workaround, lets all get Apple to correct their iTunes application. When you open iTunes, click on iTunes in the toolbar across the top of your monitor and scroll down to the line "Provide iTunes feedback" Fill out the questions and describe exactly what CD import/burning issues that you are having. We will not hear back from Apple individualy, but if we all start letting them know directly that there is an issue, maybe they will get the message and fix these problems. We all appear to be passionate about Apple and iTunes. Lets get these problems resolved. Okay?

I am having no problems. I did with my Ti667 when the optical drive died.
I am onto the latest version of iTunes and can report no problems for me.
Oppp......... my iTS country changes and I changed back and my account is in good order.
MJ

CD burning issues

I've seen a number of posts from folks experiencing speed and quality problems with audio CDs. I have had the same problems with my emac. Apple finally replaced the optical drive that came with the unit, but the burn speed problem is beginning again. The folks who have posted this issue in the past have mostly had no answers to their posts so I wonder if it is really just an isolated an issue with no solution.
I have also had many audio CDs burn, but play back with noise and skips after about 15 minutes or so. The first few tracks are fine, the rest are glitched. I thought perhaps the problem was media, but a sampling of 7 or 8 different major brands ruled that out. I then looked at the labels I was putting on the discs and contacted Memorex (the manufacturer of the labels) and received the following information:
"The burn speed of the internal burner (max 32x) is too slow for the 52 x discs available in al retail stores. The thickness and composition of the new discs causes the noise problem (he called it track noise)."
Also, I tried burning with no label and have the same problems. The skipping is worse in my portable player, but also happens in the combo drive sometimes (not all the time)
My question is this, has anyone else experienced this problem? If anyone is familiar with this situation do you know if it is only related to audio CD burns? Will the same problems in sound quality and skips occur if CDs are burned as MP3 CDs? How does this affect data CDs?
Any information would be appreciated.

trademark59,
"The burn speed of the internal burner (max 32x) is too slow for the 52 x discs available in al retail stores. The thickness and composition of the new discs causes the noise problemHa ha ha ha ha! That's funny! Thanks for sharing that with us!
Seriously, that's a load of BS. Media rated lower than the burn speed of the drive will slow the drive down, but faster rated media will not magically speed up the drive. Maybe you should get computer advice from Wal-Mart; some of the kids working the electronics section know better than that. The Discussions, in case you didn't read the Help & Terms of Use link on the right, is a user-to-user forum; if you post in some forums at some times of the week(say on a weekend night), you may get little if any response, while at other times you can get half a dozen replies in a few minutes, depending on whether your post title attracts interest or not.
In any case, no computer is going to relaiblly burn data at 24x or 32x or higher, whether Mac, high-end PC, or US$250,000 SGI supercomputer. Burns at such high rates are useful for generating coasters. You might be able to actually make such a burn, but the odds of the disc being good even a month later are effectively nil. High speed drives can read at higher speed (at least briefly until the drive buffers fill up) than they can write.
At a technology lab whose name is printed on my paychecks, the practice is to ignore the rated burn speed of the drive or the media and perform burns at either the computer's self-determined maximum or at 8x to 12x (the two usually work out to about the same in practice). Media stating it's rated for 32x, 48x, 56x, or some similar number is simply advertising with no basis in the real world.
BTW, also from practice, I'd advise against putting labels on the discs until after you've burned them. This is the shared empirical observation of other workers here as well; failed burn rates are higher if the label is put on before the burn.
There is one thing you can try that could improve your burn speed and/or qualuty. If you notice a dropoff in performance from past results, one cause (aside from degraded CD-R blanks --- the dye layer on unused blanks does degrade over time) can be a buildup of grime or dust on the LED and/or lens of the optical drive. A pass or two with a CD lens cleaner kit (there are some nice ones in stock at Wal-Mart) would help in that case.
While not directly related to your burn speed question, you should find the NIST's Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs worth checking. Care of unused CD-R blanks can keep them from degrading before use and so affecting your results.

Adobe Encore CS4, Blu-ray burning issues

Greetings!
I'm trying to get some Blu-ray discs authored for a client and am running into a snag on the last 2 discs that remain. When it gets to actually writing to the BD media, it comes up with an error message (See screenshot).
This is starting to drive me up the wall as I've been fine all along with creating Blu-ray discs up until now, and I'm sure my client is getting anxious.
For what it's worth, I am using Verbatim DataLifePlus media, 25gb. As far as what I'm bringing into Encore (which I have been doing this method many times in the past with no snags whatsoever and getting great results), I'm using the Blu-ray M2V export option. There are no issues during the transcoding phase, it's just when it finally gets to actually writing to the media. I have created ISO's of the Blu-rays I'm trying to finish (Making the ISO files come out fine) and running into a snag using other software capable of burning disc images. With this said, what could be going on? Could my optical drive be kicking the bucket?
Also to point out, where it's telling me that there's not enough space, there is some remaining space.
An interesting thing to note as well, my write speed dropdown is grayed out (The media I'm using recommends 6X buring speed).
Any feedback would be hugely appreciated as I'm trying to get this job wrapped up.

If Ann's comment doesn't fix the issue for you, the most common workaround for this is to build to a folder and burn with ImgBurn (for PC) or toast (for Mac).
So what were the issues you ran into when you tried that.
I am sure you have searched this error, and you can see that there has been success in many situations. I do not believe that it is one problem.
I have generally believed that Ann is correct and that it refers to temporary storage on the hard drive. And users underestimate the amount of temporary hard disk drive space used.
Some users experience this error when they are creating dual layer BD disks, and a layer is more than 25G. Each video/layer must fit on one side.
And some users got resolution by reencoding to a lower bitrate (a 25G BD disk does not hold 25G). Encore uses padding to predict the size on disk (e.g. add 10% to the amount of space it predicts that build will use), and it can be wrong.
Always good to "run as administrator, though I don't know that ever fixed this issue if someone wasn't.

Burning issues - worth replacing?

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