CD drive no power

I have a problem using my external CD drive. I’ve tried using different CDs, have also downloaded the most up-to-date version of Nero from the web (my writing software) as your recent article on troubleshooting Nero suggested. It still won’t carry out the burn process and is stalling at the power calibration phase. It’s a USB external drive, which has its own power supply. Would this have anything to do with it?

The power calibration process is a fifteen-step process that all burners go through at the start of a burn operation to assess the optimal power level for writing to that particular CD. This involves writing to a small area of the disc (that isn’t part of the main data area), and seeing if it can read back from this area.

Power calibration errors are usually caused by the drive’s not supporting the media you’re using. The solution is to try switching to another brand of media; usually a big name brand does the trick. However, there are no guarantees that a particular brand will always be compatible. Subtle differences in the manufacturing process can render whole batches of media incompatible with some drives.

If you’re still having problems with different media, then a firmware upgrade can improve support for different media. This type of upgrade only improves the list of brand-named discs though, and cheaper media may still refuse to collaborate.
The power supply could be causing the problem, but you have an external drive so this is unlikely. You can check by opening up the drive and installing the unit inside your machine as a standard internal drive. Only try this if the drive is out of warranty, though, or you’ll invalidate your cover.