Troubleshooting and Maintaining the Printer, Problem

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution or Reason

LED not green when power is on.

Make sure connections on the power supply are securely plugged into the AC receptacle on the printer and to an AC outlet.

LED is green but printer will	•	Label taken sensor active, label not removed.
not feed.	•	Make sure correct type of interface cable is securely plugged in
		to both the printer and computer.

Printer seems to be working but nothing prints.

Print quality is poor.

•Check that the heat sensitive side of the media faces the printhead.

•Verify that the media is intended for direct thermal printing

by testing to see if the media is blackened by heat from a hot object (70°C [160°F] or higher).

•Verify that the printer is loaded with thermal transfer ribbon and that the ink coated side faces the media surface.

Clean the printhead. If cleaning the printhead does not improve print quality, adjust the printhead contact.

Partial labels printed.	• Print carriage is not completely locked.
	• Label caught on printhead. Remove label and clean
		printhead.
Printer continues print or	• Label caught on the label gap sensor. Open the top cover,
feed when it should stop		remove the label and clean the printhead using the Cleaning
printing.		Card or isopropyl alcohol.
	•	Possible firmware problem.
Printing stops and indicator	• Possible problem with label gap sensor. Perform an auto
LED glows orange.		adjust in Auto-Sensing mode.
	•	Possible media jam.
	•	Possible firmware problem.

Label stuck on roller.	Open the peel-off mechanism and peel off the stuck label while
	manually rotating the roller. Do not use any sharp tools to
	remove the label. Clean the peel-off mechanism using the
	Cleaning Card or isopropyl alcohol.
Label taken sensor does not	• Label/tag bend down due to excessive length and/or too thin
hold printing until the label/		or soft media.
tag has been removed.	• Label or tag too short.
	• Label taken sensor or cable defective.

Indicator LED flashes red	Overheated. Wait for the printer to cool down and the indicator
and printing is interrupted.	LED changes to green and printing (if halted) resumes.

30	PF8d/PF8t Printers User’s Guide