5.6 Troubleshooting Fargo printers

This section contains a list of issues that may occur when using Fargo printers, with solutions where possible.

• No error when there is no ribbon in the printer

  If a Fargo DTC 4500e has no ribbon in the printer, the front panel of the printer and MyID both state that the printer is 'Ready'. A small icon is visible showing a problem with the ribbon, but this is not reported to MyID. In this state a card can be printed without error, but will have no visible detail on the card.

  Solution: Replace the ribbon in the printer.

• Fargo printer continues to indicate error state after restarting or disconnecting printer while loading, printing, or ejecting a card

  When a Fargo printer is switched off and then on again, or disconnected and then reconnected, while a card was being loaded, printed, or ejected, the front panel display of the printer shows that it is ready to print. When attempting to use the printer through MyID, the printer is shown to be in Not Ready state.

  Solution: Allow any activity to complete, close MyID, restart the printer again, and restart MyID.

• MyID does not indicate that a Fargo HDP8500 printer has been paused on recovery from an error condition

  If a user pauses a Fargo HDP8500 printer using the front panel when a card has been loaded into the printer, MyID shows that the printer is in Not Ready state. While the printer is paused, if another error condition is raised and then cleared, (for example, the front cover is opened and then shut), MyID indicates that the printer is no longer paused but the front panel of the printer still indicates that the printer is Paused.

  Solution: The printer must be restarted to bring the states back into alignment.

• Unable to load a card after canceling all jobs in a Fargo HDP8500 printer

  After a failure to load a card (for example, due to the hopper being empty) the printer presents the following options to the user on the printer's front panel:

  • Retry card feed

  • Cancel the card feed attempt

  If the user cancels the card feed attempt, the following options are presented:

  • Cancel current job

  • Cancel all jobs

  If the user selects Cancel all jobs, the printer returns to the ready state on the front panel but continues to indicate that a card is being fed to MyID. Subsequently, MyID will indicate that the printer is in a Ready state but the printer ignores any attempt to load a card.

  Solution: The printer requires a restart to recover from this state.

• Fargo hopper full error after emptying the card output hopper

  The Fargo HDP 8500 may raise a "reject buffer is full" error when there are just a few cards in the hopper. After the user has removed the cards from the hopper and cleared the fault from the printer's front panel display, attempt to load a card through in the printer results in an immediate "hopper full" error being raised.

  Solution: The printer requires a restart to recover from this state.

• Fargo software reports errors at the same time as MyID

  The Fargo printer driver reports errors that occur on the printer; MyID will also report the same error if the Fargo support software is installed on the client.

  Solution: Resolve the issue being reported, then click OK on both the driver window and the MyID window to continue printing.

• Fargo printer continues to indicate error state after opening and then closing printer cover during card ejection

  When the Fargo printer cover is opened and then closed during the card removal process, the front panel display of the printer shows that it is ready to print, but MyID continues to indicate that the printer is in error state.

  Solution: Allow any activity to complete and restart the printer again.

• Fargo HDP 5000 printer continues to indicate paused state on resuming job through the front panel

  If a user pauses a Fargo HDP 5000 printer using the front panel when a card has been loaded into the printer but not printing, MyID continues to show that the printer is paused when the user resumes the printer, as the printer continues to report its state as paused even though the front panel indicates that the printer has been resumed.

  Solution: Cancel the current print job using the front panel.

• Cannot resume a job if printer is paused while a card is loaded in a Fargo HDP5000 printer

  When using a Fargo HDP5000 printer with firmware version 5.3.2, if you pause the printer using the front panel when a card has been loaded into the printer, MyID shows that the printer is in printer error state. If you then press Resume on the printer front panel, MyID continues to show the printer in error state even though the printer front panel indicates that the printer is no longer paused. To recover from this, cancel the current job using the printer front panel, then press the Resume button after the card has been ejected.

• Fargo HDP 5000 printer does not recover if the printer cover is opened during printing

  If the printer front panel is opened while the printer is printing, the print job remains suspended when the printer door is closed. The printer does not provide an option to resume the print job.

  Solution: Cancel the print job. Reset the printer if the printer stops responding to the front panel buttons.