As I mentioned previously, I've been having issues burning CDs after doing a clean install of Tiger (10.4) and updating to 10.4.1.
I came across a thread on the Apple Discussion boards tonight, which seems to have fixed the problem! Yay! I have no idea how this affects disc burning, but it works, and that's all that matters. 
Thanks to "Pete" for the solution to this problem:
open system preferences.
go to international
under languages: drag any of the other languages to the top, then drag english back to the top.
make sure "order for sorted lists" is set to enlish
make sure "work break" is set to english(united states, computer)
then restart.
The details on the fix are here.
Thanks for the fix - it works! Too bad Apple couldn’t set this process up themselves before shipping their kit - it would save many people a great deal of time and concern - hhhmmnn… However, the main thing is that my iBook Superdrive is now able to ‘burn’ disks (data and DVD) - yippee!
Please, my superdrive eject all cds or dvds that put in machine. It’s verry new to have problems. I have Imac G5, and in Brazil. It can be a software problem? please send me a mail
i jus bought a mac book pro, and 3 weeks later it doesnt read any cds.. they all eject..
i need help please. please email me any sokutions.. thanks
same problem for me as Imran. Its highly inconsistent.
When I first had this problem (8 months ago or so … I think) I searched the web and the Apple support forums and got nothing. Today I was looking to finally get a replacment and thought I would looks for a solution once last time. And here it was. THANK YOU!!!!! I’m burning a DVD as we speak.
Umm… I’ll be darned! Thanks! I have been testing and fighting with an iPhoto burn problem for weeks now and apparently this has solved my problem! (?) I was convinced that it was related to a corrupted photo, but I’d not been able to pin it down. This certainly sounds like a Mac OS X software issue of some kind, but I’m using a Cube with 10.4.7 — not 4.8 — and an MCE 2X DVD-RW/RAM upgrade. I’d also tried it with an ext. LaCie Pioneer 105 burner with the same poor results. This fix did the job! International settings?? How did someone pick that out!
Cheers!
The link to the apple forums is now dead.
Tnx!
I was desperate to find a solution to this problem!
I alost bought a new driver… =P
YEAH…..
I have an external Lacie 52x firewire drive connecteted to my iMac G5 2.0ghz. About 3 weeks ago the mac would not write properly to the Superdrive and as time went on I could only read cd’s in the Lacie drive, the internal Superdrive would not even mount a manufactured cd or even the drive cleaning cd I purchased. I took my mac apart, cleaned it, took the drive out and opened it up and cleaned that too. Nothing… still no joy. Borrowed an external dvd drive and re-installed Tiger and all updates, still nothing.
Just followed your instructions and it works a dream. THANKYOU VERY MUCH INDEED
i have gone through 3 superdrives with my powerbook g4 1.0 ghz(titanium). about 2 years ago my third superdrive once again would not let me load cd’s or dvd’s. it started out just not doing it every now and then but eventually it stopped working completely. every now and then i will try it just to see if it may work and sometimes it will read the disc one time but this is extremely rare.
i just can’t believe that apple would use such a piece of crap drive in their great computers. i have seen numurous others that have had the same problem.
also this trick above did not work for me at all.
Wow, this is incredibly unbelievable, in a positive way… I tried almost everything to fix my Mac Mini Superdrive’s burning problems without actually opening up the computer and dusting the hardware. I resetted the DRAM (or whatever you call it), used Mac’s own burning folder methods, installed Patchburn, and changed the burning speed, but none but THIS very strange (and illogical) method worked! Thanks a googolplex to whomever discovered (or invented) this method! And to think I was going to buy different-branded DVD R’s, or even buy a new DVD burner… THis has been a true computer miracle indeed.
Wish this worked for me…tried it and nothing changed. I’m at the Genius Bar now and I can’t wait to see what propaganda they come up with to explain this away!
After having tried everything to fix my drive and get rid of the 0×8002006D error (buying a DVD cleaner Disc, installing Toast, the esoteric trick described here, reflashing the SuperDrive to an older firmware revision) I gave up and called Apple. Although my Macbook Pro has been out of warranty for 2 weeks, they will fix it for free. So… yay for Apple’s customer service… meh for the MBP (got sent in a month ago for fan replacement, and it’s only 12 1/2 months old). I hope they won’t replace it with another Matshita drive.
Hallelujah brother…. I don’t know how or why but this works for me. Thank you!
this fix is no fix for my macbook model 2,1 os 10.5.1 . pull up a barstool at the genius bar.
Hey, I’ve got a two year old Powerbook G4 and the DVD Burner worked allright until a couple of weeks ago…now it tells me: the device failed to calibrate the laser power level …i tried to get the fix but the site told me that it doesn’t exist …do you have any ideas where else i could get the fix …or do you maybe have any other suggestions what i could try to solve the problem
thank you… Felix
Sweet it apears to have worked! I like many others have been suffering from this for a while. I was ready to buy a new burner. Thanks!!!!!
David
Okay, this International switcha-roony worked for me… but only temporarily. I am on a Powermac G5 and when I come back from the restart and insert a blank DVD-R, all is good. But, if I eject it out (without physically removing the disc from the tray) and push the tray back in, it goes back to not being able to read the disc. I know this thread has lasted YEARS but, anyway to make this permanent? I’ve done it several times and same result: all is good for 1 disc insertion after reboot. Any fixes?!?! PLEASE!!?
AMAZING. I hunted around for a week. Everyone goes straight to the media brand without considering anything else. This worked perfectly.
Thanks a bunch!
hi there,
i have the same problem i guess:
my superdrive won’t mount, read or write…
appearently there is a solution for this problem, but where/what is it? the link’s dead.
any help is greatly appreciated!
hpe
wow i dont know why this works but IT DOES!!!! in a world of skepticism, i tried this and poped in a cd ready to continue my fix search and to my surprise my cd popped up thanks guys! Thanks for Whoever found this Saved me 100+ and Alot of Headache!
THank you!
Also Im Running Leopard So it Works With Leopard
Thnx
ok…it seems to work for a lot of people..looks promising…but i’m Dutch so is the procedure the same?…instead of english on top of the list switch Dutch language?
Bizarre fix, but it worked for me also… My problem was that my Superdrive would not recognize a writeable CD…. It would ‘try’ to read it for a while then it would spit it back out. I was ready to call Apple then I came across this posting on the Google on the tubes… It sounded so absurd I thought it a scam but hey, what did I have to lose? It wasn’t asking me to do anything destructive.
Inexplicably, it worked. Thanks for having the post. saved me a bunch of effort and time.
Great thread!! I’m hoping somebody can help me with a problem I’m having with the LaCie Superdrive I fitted in my G4 (OS X 10.4 Tiger). The drive actually does everything it should, reads, writes, etc BUT if a disk is left in the drive too long it ‘drops’ it — ie the disk spins down and the drive ‘forgets’ that it’s there and can’t spin it up again. The only way to use the disk, get it out etc is to ‘crash’ the machine and eject on reboot (it won’t shut down normally as it’s looking for the disk). I was wondering if it was a driver problem, but I can’t find any advice on how to fix it?
thanks a lot! the solution worked! After spending some of my weekend time trying to figure out what went wrong with the DVD drive - It wasnt me after all!
Didn’t fix mine, am trying anything.
MacBook spits out any DVD/CD I put in the drive, any even Disney DVDs! Very annoying indeed ad warranty only up two months ago, looks like it’ll be a €400 fix.
Genius!