Medium Write Error - again

I have recently encountered a serious problem with "medium write error" when creating Audio CDs out of iTunes. It had happened sporadically in the past, and I reduced write speed, which seemed to fix it. But now, I can seldom create a CD with iTunes.
I have searched this forum and the web for help, and seen numerous threads. I have tried reducing write speed to 1x, reduce time between songs to 2 seconds, bought brand new Verbatim CDs, reset PRAM, reset Language prefs, etc., etc. Some seemed to help for a while; I got a couple of fast burns after going to new blank CDs, but it always reverts to CD coasters.
It seems to be iTunes only! I can record files on CD and DVD from a Burn Folder, and can read both, though I don't do that very often. The iTunes burn seems to always stop at a time remaining of about 4 minutes. The files total time is right around 74 minutes; my CDs are supposed to hold 80 minutes. I did read one post that said that almost full CDs were a problem.
I tried cleaning the lens by the screen cleaning cloth wrapped around a business card method, but don't know where or how deep the lens is. I haven't tried compressed air, but have the same question. Where is the lens so that I am sure I am getting it? [My computer is an iMac 21.5]
Is it possible that the serious problem arose with iTunes 11.0.3 being run on OS 10.6.8? The timing is about right. I have been going to upgrade to 10.8, but just haven't gotten around to it. Might that help? What about another program to make the burn? RealPlayer/Toast/etc. Can they work with from iTunes playlist?
Any/all help is appreciated.

I posted the following message at
https://discussions.apple.com/message/22048033#22048033
in response to a suggestion to burn "cold".
I did try to burn 1st thing after a period of shutdown - twice. No success. First time, I tried with my "old" blank TDK media: medium write error @ just over 4 minutes remaining. Second, after a shutdown, tried my "new" Verbatim blank media and got the same error, don't know the time as I wasn't watching. I both cases, I left the computer idle during the burn. And I add that I have successfully burned all of the (full) playlists I have been attempting to burn several times before, a year + ago, with no problems.
This problem has been around for YEARS, as is apparent from this and other forums, and seems worse or exclusive to burning CDs out of iTunes. Does Apple just throw up their hands? Would a visit to the Genius @ an Apple Store be worthwhile?

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TS1436 I received this message twice on 2 new & separate attempts to burn a playlist to a NEW cd: "The attempt to burn a disc failed. The burn failed because of a medium write error." What is a "medium write error" and how can I deal with this?

I received this message twice on 2 new & separate attempts to burn a playlist to a NEW cd: "The attempt to burn a disc failed. The burn failed because of a medium write error." What is a "medium write error" and how can I deal with this?

Hello Pat,
The following article provides troublehsooting steps and information that can help get iTunes burning discs again.
Can't burn a CD in iTunes for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1436
Cheers,
Allen

Medium write error when burning a DVD. Uh?

So I mounted my DVD and burnt 2 x copies successfully. When it came to number three the message "Medium write error" came up and the disk was rejected unburnt! I got the new iMac cos the old one's DVD burner failed. What can I do to get things working again? iMac is about a month old.

is there a list of media that works in a mac?
or is it safe to say that the more expensive the dvds the highr the chance that it will work

Overheating, medium write error and warranty coverage in New Zealand

The subject line pretty much sums it all up! Just recently my beloved Macbook is starting to act up when I attempt to burn music CD's (from itunes to CD). I reduce the burn speed down, which worked once, but not again. It keeps rejecting the CD saying "medium write error", yet I've used these exact CD's before without problem. When it rejects the CD it sounds like it's working really, really hard - the motor spinning inside is really audible and it gets very hot and my last attempt I swear I smelt burning!?
I brought my Macbook in California, but now residing in New Zealand. Does my warranty extend here? Is this covered under warranty? I checked my serial number against the warranty before and it said I was covered until September 2009 under the Apple Care Protection Plan.
Please help!
Much love
Lara

It should be covered no matter where you are. Contact Apple Support or go by an apple store for help. They will let you know your options for getting it fixed.

Medium Write Error, cannot burn CD in iTunes (Toast works fine)

I have always used iTunes to burn my CDs. Today I keep getting a Medium Write Error. I tried buring the same playlist with Roxio Toast and worked fine. Then the error happened again on iTunes.
I have been using iTunes for years on this computer. Why would it suddenly give an error? The error happens while the disc is finalizing. There is nothing wrong with the drive, as evidenced by Toast writing fine. Is there any way to fix this or do I just need to use Toast from now on?

I'm having the same problem!! I've successfully burned 3 different CD's. Now I'm getting a 'burn cancel' unknown code. Very frustrating. All CD's are good, even new!
Can anyone share any thoughts??
Thanks in advance!!
Amy

I got an error message while burning a cd in itunes - "The attempt to burn a disc failed. The burn failed because of a medium write error. What is that and how can i fix it?t

I got an error message while burning a CD in iTunes - "the attempt to burn a disc failed. The burn failed because of a medium write error." What does this mean and how do I fix it?

The disk you are using probably has a defect, not uncommon on consumer grade disks. Try another disk or better yet another disk from a different manufacturer or at least a different batch.

The Attempt to burn disc failed. The burn failed because of a medium write error.

When trying to burn a CD, I'm getting an error that reads:The Attempt to burn disc failed. The burn failed because of a medium write error. I experienced this message before and took my Macbook in to the store and the the genius was stumped but when he tried one of his CD's it burned fine to he concluded that the problem was in the CD's NOT the Macbook or program HOWEVER, months later, I'm having the same issue using the NEW CD's. Does anyone have any information about this?

3 methods to fix this:
The first is to reset pram
at boot up hold four keys down till you hear 3 chimes:
command(apple)=option+p+r
release keys and it will now reboot.
The second is to reset nvram
at boot up hold four keys down:
command(apple)+option+o+f
a black screen will appear
now type: reset-nvram
click enter
now type: reset-all
click enter
it will now reboot
The third is to open system preferences.
go to international
under languages: drag any of the other languages to the top, then drag english back to the top.
make sure "order for sorted lists" is set to english
make sure "word break" is set to english(united states, computer)
then restart.
I hope this helps you as it certainly did me. :^)

I am getting an error every time i try to burn a playlist. The error reads The Attempt to burn disc failed. The burn failed because of a medium write error.

Can somebody help me. I used to be able to burn with no problem. But now while finishing discs, I get the following message.
The Attempt to burn disc failed. The burn failed because of a medium write error.

Try a different brand of discs. Try restarting your computer.

Im trying to burn a cd from itunes, I keep getting a message that says "the attempt to burn a CD failed because of a medium write error" any help would be appreciated

hello, I'm trying to burn a playlist from itunes to a cd, but I keep getting a message saying "the attempt to burn a CD failed because of a medium write error" can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong. I'm not so tech savvy so any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks

I'm not familiar with this error, but check the following:
-Is your disc a CD or a DVD? You want a CD, not a DVD.
-Is the CD blank? You'll want a blank one.
-Maybe the disc is scratched and cannot be used. Try another CD.
-Maybe your disc burner is broken. If you have another, try it.

HT1751 On an old Mac I got this message while trying to burn a CD for the car: "The attempt to burn a disc failed. The burn failed because of a medium write error." What does this mean? And how do I work around it?

On an older Mac I got this message while trying to burn a CD for the car: "The attempt to burn a disc failed. The burn failed because of a medium write error." What does this mean? And how do I work around it?

I had been getting this all morning and checked other messages from the community. THe one which worked was trying a different brand of disc.
I had been using Verbatim which had copied the music fine off the Real Player on my PC at school, but wouldn't work with I Tunes. Tried a Staples and an Office Depot CD-R , both of which did the job.

I got a message while burning a CD. "The Attempt to Burn the disc failed because of medium write error"..what does this mean?

i got this message while buring a CD on itunes. "The Attemp to burn the disc failed because of medium write error"..what do you make of this?
i think the CD was bad. i took the machine to the Apple store and they said the Optical Drive was OK. so it must be the CD's i'm using... i use Verbatim type. let me know.

'Mediium write error' means it failed to write to the disc - some makes work better than others and you may just have hit a single bad disc or maybe your burner doesn't like the make of disc. I've always had good results with TDK.

Getting medium write error on burning a disc image using Disk utility

Have a MacBrook Pro 15 inch, circa Summer 2007, using OX 10.4.11. up until recently (as in before February) have been able to burn DVD's using Toast (message Medium Writer Error). Started getting problems where the burn failed. Thought maybe it was Toast, so I tried creating an iDVD project and tried to burn the DVD using that, and it stopped in the middle as well and then spit the disk out with no error message.
, this time I tried creating a disc image, and used disk utility to burn. The process looked like it was going to work but then failed with a message that I have a medium write error.
I have no problems burning a regular data disk on my superdrive so I am thinking it's maybe a software glitch rather than hardware. . Any thoughts, as to what could be causing this problem all of a sudden. By the way, there are other users out there, who seems to be having DVD burning problems all of a sudden, but most people suggest other media. I am using the same stack of DVD-R's from before when I had no problem.

Well, I had assumed my media was ok, since I had a spindle of DVD-R's and had used many of them successfully (until now!, ha ha).
I went out this afternoon and bought another brand (Memorex) and it successfully recorded.
So hopefully this solves my problem, I had no idea it was the media since I had used several of them before.
Thanks for your help.

DVD-R burn error "medium write error"

Just received a refurbished iMac today. Doing a basic Disc Copy from Disk Utility and burn one disc OK. The second disc ejects half way through burn and "medium write error" pops up. All the disc I pull out are blazing hot as well. I don't know if this has anything to do with it.
I am trying another burn now. Has anybody seen this error or had DVD-R burning issues?
Thanks,
Adam

I saw this using Toast 9 -- turned out I had turned on the DVD-DL support by accident and I didn't have a DL DVD drive.

Multiplexing error/medium write error/HELP!

When i try to burn my DVD in iDVD it will get to the burn process then kick the DVD out and give me a multiplexing error. So, I tired to use disk utilities and I was able to make the movie, but when i tried to burn it through there I got an error message reading "medium write error", Does this mean that I need to replace my DVD burner? If so, is that a hard job to do? Can I substitute it with an external DVD burner? if so, is there one anyone would recommend? Does ANYONE have any suggestions on this matter, because I am in the middle of a project and I can't get it off my computer.
thanks so much
ruez

You might get more authoritative responses in the iDVD forum, or perhaps in a hardware forum if it comes time to select a DVD burner. If your G5 is a tower, replacing an optical drive is pretty simple. If it's an iMac, I imagine it would be pretty daunting. I'm pretty sure there was a time when iDVD would not recognize external burners, but don't know if that's still the case.
One thing to try: After you create your disk image file in iDVD, put that file on an external drive and see if another Mac can burn the DVD.

When burning my pictures to CD, a burn failed, medium write error came up.

When burning my pictures from IPhoto to a CD, a burn failed, medium write error showed up,

Like many other suggestions I found, I went ahead and purchased a lens cleaner. The CD instructions said to insert and play track 2, but my drive would just keep ejecting the CD. But it worked! That and a little compressed air.
Before using the lens cleaner and compressed air, my drive would constantly give me a medium write error and always make loud vibrating noises that sounded like my drive was about to explode. But now it writes like a charm and is completely silent!

Medium Write Error - again

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