Medium write error?

[giffut]

If ...

... your drive is fairly new, get your warranty running. DVD/CD burners use different lasers for each DVD and CD. The laser for your CD part is very likely no longer working properly.

I have a Sawtooth (June, 2000 orig. 500mhz), upgraded to 1 gb dual, running Leopard. I can't burn a disc with iTunes or finder or disc utility. DVDs work fine, but not CDs. HELP! I did max speed, 24, 16, 12, and even 4. My DVD burner is fairly new, Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-112D.
Thanks.

 

[lstpaul]

Bethikus Fixed Medium Write Error Problem

Bethikus' post fixed my computer! I use a Macbook with Leopard. iTunes would not burn CD's for me, after one time of burning a CD when the laptop was bumped, causing the burner to stop immediately. Ever since i have not been able to burn CD's. I bought new blanks, did not work. I set the write speed to 4x, 6x, 24x, still did not work. WHen i read this post I tried it out and now I can burn CD's again! Here is the post Bethikus posted:


I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Sounds stupid but try it out! it really works!

 

[rneglia]

Well done taking the piss

Bethikus' post fixed my computer! I use a Macbook with Leopard. iTunes would not burn CD's for me, after one time of burning a CD when the laptop was bumped, causing the burner to stop immediately. Ever since i have not been able to burn CD's. I bought new blanks, did not work. I set the write speed to 4x, 6x, 24x, still did not work. WHen i read this post I tried it out and now I can burn CD's again! Here is the post Bethikus posted:


I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Sounds stupid but try it out! it really works!

Ha ha! I actually tried this.

You pulled one over on me!

Coaster anyone?

 

[JasonGough]

i'm going mad with this medium write error. quite embarrassing when you have just produced a bands album and can't burn off the master CD or data DVD!

i have a 2007 santa rosa MBP. it was not working at all. i took it back to apple and applecare replaced my optical drive. got a new one now, an LG i believe. could not believe it once i got home to burn a DVD and medium write error gave me another place to rest my drink.

i agree with cleaning your lens, but my optical drive is 2 days old and fails. has anyone else read a good answer to this that doesn't involve changing your system language

 

[captaincarrot]

more like the eerienets, amirite?

The update from the above comment coincided eerily with me buying new DVD-DL's. Just made the following post in the sister thread linked above:

Eventually picked up a new pack of DVD-DL's of a different brand, and they worked a speedy treat. I havent initialised the content of the disc yet, but it seems to boot etc. like a gem, and no doubt the prog will work fine too. No other changes were made to the general setup.

On the "quality" of the media: they were none other than Tesco's €5 finest. So it seems that while it Is* the media, price isn't a reliable standard. But it is the media. It is the media. It is the media.
​

Voila. I have solved the issue for myself (thank f-), and earned clubcard points. Hope this helps =J

(*read: was for me)

 

[Stibble]

Speed

I had this problem on an Intel iMac w Leopard. Both Burn and iTunes made horrible noises and refused to burn. I changed the SPEED from Maximum to 24x and problem solved. Gotta be worth a try.

 

[brigb1]

Solution

Had the same problem on both my laptops. Get a CD/DVD DRIVE CLEANER. I got one at Staples for $10.95. It fixed the problem in a matter of minutes, my drive now burns quickly and smoothly without problem.

Please do not dismantle your disk drives as so many on these forums have... all you need is some simple maintenance!!!

 

[jenks88]

Same error message

Hiya guys,

I was wondering if any of you could help me.
My computer is:
Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook1,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo

Every time I try to burn a cd on itunes, it comes up with the error "unable to burn cd. medium write error". I've tried adjusting it to a lower burn speed, i.e 8x or 6x but its still continuing with the same problem. It doesnt even seem to attempt to burn the disc, it simply says "checking playlist...then initializing then finishing" in about 2 seconds and doesn't bother to do anything that it says apart from make a loud noise. I'm not moving the laptop when I do this.

I'd appreciate any help you could give me,

Thanks a lot

 

[captaincarrot]

Haven't seen this happen in itunes, but if we're assuming it's the same problem; try the following (probably listed in order of expense):

-try it with CDs of a different brand
-try a lens cleaner
-blow some valuable, compressed, can-contained air into the drive
-take it into a shop so you can mystify the staff and have them send it off.

I solved the problem by changing the media, and I strongly suggest it, but others tried different things, and those worked too, so... Even if the media seems reputable (eg sony, or... verbatim?..), try some other brand. There's a link somewhere in this thread to explain why this matters so. In the end, if your lappy is a 1,1, it might simply be time...

 

[petertee]

I too have the dreaded message 'mwe' and unlike Captain Carrot I have been using Tesco's own brand CD-R all along.
I will buy a cleaner-disc and see how I get along and post my results.
I had earlier difficulty being able to write mp3 discs until on-line research revealed that all the cds that I had uploaded to iTunes had been recorded in another format. I tried using the iTunes ability to convert to mp3 but got the files so muddled and confused I finished up deleting the lot and starting again from scratch - then 'mwe' struck Hissy fit wasn't in it.
I've found the transition from Windows/PC quite frustrating at times ...

Cheers

 

[petertee]

Update

I have good news and not so good ...
The Ross Laser Lens Cleaner did the trick in conjunction with newly purchased Sony CD-Rs recording at x4 (max recommended for my vehicles player).
Trying to record on the Tesco discs I tried at x2 and thought it was working but at about track 22 it aborted and I got the usual error message.
I now realise that coming to this thread by googling medium write error I am posting to the wrong thread as my machine is iMac Intel - oops. I have found the thread on Mac OS X section that seems mainly to find the same sort of problem writing DVDs.
As a convert from Microsoft I do find OS X seems not to make it as easy to share audio and photo/video content as the other lot - or have I not been brainwashed fully yet?

Cheers

PS The other not-good news is that my vehicle's player finds this disc, that I've laboured mightily to produce, UNPLAYABLE!

 

[captaincarrot]

I too have the dreaded message 'mwe' and unlike Captain Carrot I have been using Tesco's own brand CD-R all along.

...I've never actually seen my username written out by someone; I have a stupid handle. Anyway, be patient petertee, brainwashing is a powerful but gradual process, and you Will get there eventually.

I'm assuming the list you were trying to burn onto an itunes cd didn't exceed the capacity of the actual CD? 22 tracks is quite a lot. iTunes shows the size/duration of the playlist at the bottom of the playlist window: anything above 800MB (prob) won't fit on any CD, regardless of your digital hygiene.
As for it not playing in your vehicle's drive, some do not read home-made CDs: they will usually say it somewhere. Don't know if that applies to you, and appologies if this is all old news..

 

[captainj73]

fixed!

I took the advice of slowing down my burn speed on my mac book pro and it finally burned my cd. I used the same brand of CDs Sony CD-R. Thanks for the advice!

 

[PeytonMichelle]

Half worked

I tried changing the speed to 1x and it prepared the songs then said finishing and then the message of it failing and not retrying came up. Still not sure how to fix that.

 

[sklucky9]

I fixed my issue!!!!

The CD/DVD Lens Cleaner worked for me. 8 dollars at Wal-Mart FTW

 

[gladiatrix]

wow!

Thank you #18! It actually worked!

 

[william sire]

I had the same problem, don’t know why because I have burned countless cd’s on this same computer. But what I did to solve it was I initialized the burning process manually by clicking on the "burn disc” icon sometimes even before the computer recognized the blank CD. but that still doesn’t identify the root of the problem.

 

[piwi]

SuperDrives are very picky when it comes to burning. Buy the insanely expensive medias or fail your burn. Or quit using the SD and buy a cheap external DVD burner. Works wonder and in the long run it's well worth the 100-$ as you save a lot on blank medias.

 

[Nanoen]

had the same problem, found this on another forum and it worked like a charm. who knows why...


I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...

I have no idea why but this worked but it did. Where did you find this fix? I work for Apple and have no idea why this worked. Crazy Apple engineers!


-Matt-

 

[thatoneguy82]

I know you fixed this already, however, I used to get this all the time on my 12" PB. Slowing down the burn speed did help but I couldn't even move the PB at all without it failing. Finally took the PB to Genius Bar and it was replaced under warranty.

 

[JimjReilly]

Burn Speed

I don't know if this is totally random or if their is some hidden explanation but I was getting this error until I changed the burn speed down to 8x? I don't know if this is todo with the disk or what I was burning (Ubuntu ISO) but it worked???

I was using Disk Utility and I'm on a Macbook Pro, Model - 5,5

 

[blybarry]

surreal fix for iMAC burner

had the same problem, found this on another forum and it worked like a charm. who knows why...


I cannot believe it, but this crazy fix (on a 24" Core 2 Duo iMac) worked for me:

Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer

Incredible! It works! This is now at the top of my list for unbelievably arcane fixes...

I talked to four different Apple "experts" about my burner not working and my getting three different error messages, including "medium write error." They were all clueless about this message and unable to help me. It must have been sheer desperation which impelled me to try the fix described above. It worked!!! I called Apple to tell them. I doubt that they believed me. I have a 27" iMAC purchased 4/2010 OS 10.6.4

 

[Other.Mother]

THANK YOU for ending a few days of STRESS AND FRUSTRATION!

This is late, but I thought I'd post this here in hopes that it helps someone else...

I had been getting the dreaded medium write error for some time. I tried an external drive (an old one, not entirely reliable) and got the same thing. I thought for some reason it might be software related, so I restored my computer (a bit extreme, and an unlikely solution but I needed to do it anyways, so why not?). That didn't fix it. I did the PRAM reset (which would have no bearing on this anyways, but again why not?). I was about to give up and chalk it up to a faulty drive and bring it to apple to fix under my apple care.

As I was going to leave, I had one more idea. I went to work (I work at Best Buy) and picked up a CD laser lens cleaner disc. My MBP wouldn't load the disc, but when you put it in, the disc spins and tries to load, running the brushes over the laser.

A few times through that and my computer is working like a champ.

So before you try all that other crap, go out and spend the 10 bucks for the lens cleaner. : )

THIS WORKED!!! YAY YAY!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!! (I registered just so I could tell you that!!!)

 

[coat12]

Speed really is key

Some of you may have already figured this out but I figured I'd post.

The only problems I ever really had with my Macbook... ever... was the CD/DVD optical drive... I had to get it replaced and I'm tempted to do it again because it's still just giving me problems. I attempt to burn a CD (Everything else I use this drive for works fine: watching DVDs, playing CDs, importing CDs, etc.) and it says Burning Initializing. Then, seconds later, it says burning finalizing. Then the blank CD ejects completely wasted. I tried soooo many different things that could fix the problem. Restarting the computer holding Command+option+P+R until it restarted again, lowering the write speed from max to 24x, different brand of CDs (I still don't think it's the CDs. With today's burning technology, I don't think it would depend on what type of CD you use... personally), double checking Disk Utilities, EVERYTHING. Nothing worked except lowering the write speed to 4x. It might seem like bs, but that's the best thing I could come up with... I mean if anyone else has gone through as much as I have and figured something else out, please let me know. I'd love to know.

 

[captaincarrot]

coat12, does it say "medium write error" when it doesn't burn in itunes? It could well by the same root problem, but you might find a better solution in a thread which deals specifically with itunes "fake" burning a CD, as opposed to burning being aborted, with an error message and code.

Also:

I too have the dreaded message 'mwe' and unlike Captain Carrot I have been using Tesco's own brand CD-R all along.

I'm on Tesco DVD-DLs, probably makes a difference.