iMac G5 won't burn cd

dskowron

Registered
Hi,

I have a G5 iMac, 1.8 GHz, running OS 10.3.9. All of a sudden I can't burn a cd. I get a simple error message that the cd is bad or some such thing. I can't believe that every cd in two different packages is bad! Neither iTunes nor the Finder can burn. iTunes is 7.6.2 (9). I suspect it has something to do with one or the other version of either my OS or iTunes. Can any of you Mac experts tell me what's going on? The CD Drive works fine otherwise.

After posting this, I looked in the console log and found this:

"Mac OS X Version 10.3.9 (Build 7W98)
2009-05-06 15:44:53 -0700
Warning: unrecognized command line flag -psn_0_1572865
Finder: Burn started, Wed May 6 15:58:22 2009
Finder: Burning to CD-R media with SAO strategy in MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-825 DBN7 via ATAPI.
Finder: Requested CD burn speed was 2x, actual burn speed is 4x.
Finder: Burn underrun protection is supported, and enabled.
Finder: Write (10), block: -150, count: 32 -> 3/73/03 Medium Error, Power calibration area error
Finder: Burn failed, Wed May 6 15:58:34 2009
Finder: Burn sense: 3/73/03 Medium Error, Power calibration area error
Finder: Burn error: 0x80020022 The device failed to respond properly, unable to recover or retry.
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin: can't map file: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/AdobePDFViewer.plugin ((os/kern) invalid argument)
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin: can't map file: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin ((os/kern) invalid argument)"

Don't know if this helps at all, but here it is anyway. :-)


TIA

Dave
 
Last edited:
I have the same problem with my G5. Hard drive was making clicking sounds a few days ago before the hang up for about 30 seconds so I began to back up everything but now I can't continue with the backup because of the finder being hung up.

Thanks for any help you can give. Elaine
 
Gouldx3 - are you having a problem with burning CDs?

diskowron - the power calibration error might be due to dust in the drive, so try blowing out with a can-o-air, check if that helps. You could also try a cleaning CD, but, more often, the power calibration is because of bad media. If you have tried a couple of different brands already, then that too is less likely.
In the end, it's a hardware problem, and the hardware that's left is the drive.
Even though your drive works OK for reading disks, that doesn't affect the writing, or burning, functions. So, likely your drive will need to be replaced.
 
Hi Delta Mac thanks for your reply. What you said to Disowron may apply to me also. This G5 is only 3 years old but made clicking sounds like the hard disk death rattle a few days ago for less than a minute but enough for me to start backing up on disks. Now the Finder is hung up, telling me I don't have permission to trash things, not letting me burn either a CD or DVD. The clock keeps spinning around. I don't know if I should go and buy a HD external fire wire or even if it's too late for that to work. I know it's not dirt in the disc drive and I've tried several different discs. I've tried shutting down the MAC, Restarting, etc. It is a MAC OS X Version 10.4.11 Processor 2GHz Power PC G5
Thank you. Elaine
 
Gouldx3 - I think your situation is not related to the CD burning problem for the one that started this thread. It's challenging enough sometimes to answer a poster's questions, without having another thread-in-a-thread that is not related.
My first guess is that you are experiencing problems with your hard drive, so if you will boot to your OS X installer DVD, and run Disk Utility from the menus - you can then choose the hard drive, and click the Repair Disk button.
I would ask you to open a new thread with what you have done, along with the other symptoms that you are experiencing. Someone will help you...
 
A friend has a burning problem, but it seems linked to how she puts the files on the CD to burn! If a whole folder is dragged in: nope. If the files are dragged in one at a time: that works, but NOT if they were not out of a folder and on the desktop as separate files!
Now, each burn has to be separated by a restart.... you can see we are heading back towards cuneiform on clay tablets
Of course, the hard drive is fairly full, but, gee.....
 
If the hard drive is full it can affect burning. I'd recommend free up at least 15% and see if it burns after that.
 
I had the same problem/ same machine/ same faults. Try a CD cleaner that has a little brush on one side. Called a CD Laser Lens Cleaner.They are not that easy to find but Maplins had one at £4:99. PC World have the same for £15:99 !!!!! Anyway worked first time.
 
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