[godiva de maus]

Failure to calibrate laser error message:

Attempts to overcome:

1) Apple recommended inserting and ejecting known CD (like original installation multiple times) did.. no change.
2) Apple recommended that run hardware diagnostics from original installation to see if machine will load and run that. Yes. All systems both quick and extended methods checked out and passed.
3) Forum suggestion of going to system preferences>international>drag any language other than english to top of list, then drag english to top. Order for selected list: English. Word break: English. Reboot. Attempt to burn. Unable to burn.
4) Attempted to burn data (instead of music) in iTunes - again, rejected same error message.
5) Attempted to burn from finder by creating burn folder - failed and ejected CD.

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-845:

Firmware Revision: DBN9
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: No

Hardware Overview:

Machine Name: iMac G5
Machine Model: PowerMac8,2
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.1)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 2 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.2.5f1

An earlier post from 2010 showed expert indicating that IF you attempt to boot the installation disk, and it will not boot, your drive is bad. If the installation drive will boot, they said it's a software problem, but did not indicate what sort of software problem it might be and they did not suggest any fixes.

So, is my superdrive failing and needs replaced? OR, is there some other fix I haven't yet tried that may calibrate?

[Waragainstsleep]

Can you boot from an external hard disk or another Mac and test burning from there? If it fails then its time for a new drive.

[godiva de maus]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Can you boot from an external hard disk or another Mac and test burning from there? If it fails then its time for a new drive.

I'm not sure I know what you mean. So, bear with me, I'm honestly confused by your response.

In my post I listed step #2 to attempt to overcome the problem:
boot the machine from the optical drive using the original install disk. It boots and works. I was also able to boot it, pressing "option" and run the hardware diagnostics both quick and extended and the diagnostics say everything passed. It apparently will read CD's music and data.

My problem isn't the ability to boot. It's the ability to burn. So, are you suggesting that I go out, purchase an external optical drive and try to burn a CD from that and if it does, then I know my optical drive is toast? How would burning on a different Mac (or, are you suggesting that I purchase another iMac, install my optical drive in that and see if it burns in that, to see if my machine has a software problem?)?

[Waragainstsleep]

You can install Mac OS X on an external firewire hard disk and boot from that. If you have another Mac, you can boot it holding the T key and it will behave as an external firewire disk so you could boot your iMac from it to double check that you don't have a software issue with burning discs.

You obviously cannot test the burning capability when you are booted from a DVD.
In all likelihood the burning laser is knackered and you will need a new burner if you want to burn any more discs. The above test is just a way of getting absolute confirmation of this.