Hey guys, so I think that my cd burner is half dead and doing a crappy job. When I try to burn a cd it keeps saying that that error power calibration error or something like that then I put another cd and it finally works. Thats with the musicmatch burner. but with nero I went through 3 power calibration errors and no cd will burn. And those cd's that say error become useless. If its the cd burner I would be happy if it was because its an 8x and im ready to upgrade to something better. Thanks for your help :D

If you are looking for permission to buy a new burner, consider permission granted. I guess I've been using computers too long. 8x is too slow for you? We sure get spoiled easily don't we? I still remember my first 2x CDrom. I paid a fortune for it and thought it was the best thing since white bread.
I think that after a hundred or so burns the lense may get dirty. Try a lense cleaner on it. If you are going to get a new burner I would assume it will be a DVDRW. If you can, keep the old drive in place. Always nice to have options.

Well, 8x I sometimes dont see the need in having cd's burned like in 4 minutes. But sometimes im sitting here waiting for it to get burned and I say to myself I wish I had a faster burner. Now that its giving me errors I think its time for a new one. and yeah I think I may consider a DVDRW depending on price and if somebody could recommend me a good one :D. Thanks for your help. More suggestions welcomed BTW

Are you located in the USA?

power calibration error is normally the result of crappy cds.
before ur burning software burns ur cd....wot is does is it writes a test piece to the cd first to see if it can read it back....if it cant read it....then it comes up with power calibration error...normally because of cheap disks or a bad batch of disks.
thats why the cds are useless after the error...because its already written to the cd but cant read it.

If the CD burner has died, I would replace it with a DVD writer because it will write both.

I have a CDRW and a DVD writer (Toshiba).

Sometimes on large backups, I have started using the DVD even though I have a thousand or so CDR's waiting to be used.

see here the answer for u'r query..

http://faqs.cogia.net/faqs/powercalibrationerror.php

it should solve u'r problem.

good luck.

rhi.

Frequently encountered computer problems and solutions.
http://faqs.cogia.net
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Thanks for the help guys. Im using Imation cd's. Im going to buy blank cd's from another brand and see what happends.The weird thing is that I try to burn once and for sure im going to get the power calibration error. then I try again and it burns normal. any ideas?

Imation makes good media.

You can get a DVD burner for about $60 or less. Buy one and go on with your life.

But I want a high quality burner! can anybody recommend me a good high quality burner with good reviews thanks. :D

Since you bought your 8x CD cooker the technology has changed.

You'll find that a generic DVD cooker will blow the doors off your 8x cooker. I no longer shop brand but price. Every time I check, I get more features at the $60 price point.

I agree with Badboy. I NEVER worry about the brand on optical drives. I consider them to be disposable hardware. At the prices I look mainly for the +- compatability and a burning software bundle. Everything else like real fast speed and dual layer is just hype IMO. By the time the media get cheap enough for you to consider using them the technology will have changed again. I have had a CD burner for at least 5 years and I have yet to use a CDRW disk, and I got a free one with my burner. For what they cost it just doesn't make sense.

oh, I just wanted a good high quality burner that wouldnt die on me in a couple of months. SO what you guys are telling me is to buy a dvd burner with + and - compatability? and not to worry about dual layer and all that stuff?

That is what I am saying. My DVDRW is a Maddog 8x +- that I have had since Christmas of last year. I don't use it all that much so I don't know that I am a good gauge but it is still going strong. Never burned a coaster either. I might add a footnote here. I use Roxio CD DVD creator, not NERO. The main reason is that Drag to Disk, the packet writer, works with CDR media. InCD requires CDRW media. I use Drag to Disk for instant backups. I have my old burner setup with a formatted disk in there all the time and just automatically do a save and then a save as or drag a DLoaded file directly to the icon.