late 08 mbp - dvd drive problem

[zebbz]

i have a late08 macbook pro
the first unibody ones

the drive is kind of messed up
when i try and burn a disc it says something like

device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media


ive tried a few different brands of discs
many of which have worked sucessfully in the past but now do not

this is mainly with blank dvds

and the same with cd-r's, though rarely it does burn a disc once in a while

i havent tried burning with the drive for a while now
because if it does start burning it always gets an error someway through burning resulting in countless wasted discs

ive been using an external enclosure with a dvd-rom through usb to burn discs and its extremely annoying


i have applecare for 3 years
and have had the apple since it came out in october


will apple do anything about it?
and will they try and charge me or should it be covered?



thanks in advance for any help

 

[AppleUser2]

Is the SuperDrive appearing in your System Profile? Mine is not and off to a genius tomorrow - a safe boot fixed my problem (for a bit) if it helps.

 

[zebbz]

Is the SuperDrive appearing in your System Profile? Mine is not and off to a genius tomorrow - a safe boot fixed my problem (for a bit) if it helps.

yeah it works properly and reads discs fine (for the most part)
just burning, where it fails