Hardware error - Tracking servo failure - what does it mean?

Question

Thanks in advance. I was trying to burn a disc, and started having trouble with burning this movie (have done several before, including earlier versions of this movie). After wierd things happening twice - the first disc would burn, then the second one might be o.k. but iDVD ejected it before it said it was done. Then, the third time I got this error:
The recording device reported the hardware error: Tracking servo failure. (0x09, 0x01.)
Any idea what this means and what I should do?
(I'm posting this on both the hardware and software locations since I'm not really sure which it is.)

Answer 1

Hi,
Thanks for the comments! The CD/DVD lens cleaner appears to have taken care of the problem! I was able to successfully do a backup of my hard drive with Toast (wouldn't work before, see below) and burn two copies of a movie using iDVD. (I put more details of the errors below in case that's helpful for someone else down the line.
I am trying to do the Apple Hardware Test, as you suggested, but need to double check a couple of things. When the article you put a link to mentions the "Apple Hardware Test CD" and the "system CD" are both references to the "Software Install and Restore" CDs? (Those are the only relevant-sounding ones I received, no "Hardware Test CD".) If I put those in, can I run the relevant tests without reinstalling the software (and presumably deleting the other files on my hard drive)?
I did do the steps suggested by PT up through the reboot, except for sort of doing Preferential Treatment out of order because it took me a bit to realize that if I made the window bigger it would show what to try (the error message was truncated and not viewable). Then, rather than trying iDVD again, I tried to use Toast to back up the computer to avoid having to pay for that in case what the Apple repair folks do would necessitate an overdue (and if done by them costly) backup. Toast crashed with remarkable similar messages:
The drive reported an error: Sense Key = ILLEGAL REQUEST Sense Code = 0x30, 0x05 CANNOT WRITE MEDIUM – INCOMPATIBLE FORMAT
The drive reported an error: Sense Key = HARDWARE ERROR Sense Code = 0x44 INTERNAL TARGET FAILURE
The disk failed to be written.
Well, at least we have (so far) avoided the PBJ, in spite of having two wonderful children a year minus a week apart. (I'm afraid we did the adoption agency we used a disservice - we gave them our old non-Apple PC.)
Thanks so much.