FAQ

Troubleshooting printing problems in BarTender

 

Before working through this article you should refer to Common printing issues, which will direct you to specific areas of this article according to your problem.  If you are unsure where your problem is, or just want to be sure you are following "best practice methods", then we recommend working through the entire article.

 

The concept is that you methodically work through your print system verifying that each individual part is working correctly before moving on to the next part.

 

This guide is organized into three major sections:

 

 

The first step in troubleshooting your printer problems is the ensure that the printer itself is working correctly.

 

If you run into any hardware issues while checking your printer, you will need to consult your printer manual or contact the printer manufacturer for assistance.

 

Printer cables

Verify the printer cables are correctly plugged into the printer and PC.

 

Rather than just confirming the plugs are connected, it is best practice to unplug and re-plug the printer cables to make sure they are deeply seated in the correct ports.

 

Ensure Printer is "Ready"

Verify the printer is powered on and ready to print.

 

Depending on your printer model it may display "Ready" on the LED panel, or a green light if there is no LED panel.  You may need to power off, and then power the printer back on to return to the ready state.  If your printer boots directly into an error message, then consult your printer manual or contact the printer manufacturer for assistance removing the error before continuing with this article.

 

Calibrate your printer

Verify the printer feeds only one label to the correct position.

 

Press the feed button on the printer  and note how many labels feed out, and where the label stops each time.  Repeat the process 3-5 times (feeding one label may not accurately display whether it is properly calibrated).  If one label does not feed out to the correct position each time, then consult your printer manual or contact the printer manufacturer for assistance on how to calibrate your printer.

 

Tip: You may be able to perform a calibration from your Seagull printer driver (depending on printer model).

 

 

Configuration page

Verify the printer can print to your stock.

 

Printers can commonly print a configuration page by using the LED panel.  A configuration page will also provide useful information about your printer, such as current printer language (if it supports multiple languages) and the printer DPI (dots per inch, or resolution). Consult your printer manual or contact the printer manufacturer for assistance.

 

Printer dump mode

Disable printer dump mode

 

This issues only occurs when receiving print code.  When printers are printing gibberish, or random characters it may be that the printer is in dump mode, which means instead of executing the print commands it is printing the actual print commands it receives.

 

Dump mode is commonly exited by powering off the printer for 10+ seconds, however, you may need to consult your printer manual or contact the printer manufacturer for assistance.

 

Up to date firmware

Verify you have the latest firmware installed for your printer.

 

You can commonly check the printer manufacturer's website for information on the firmware for your printer, and instructions on how to upgrade the firmware (if necessary).  You may need to contact them for assistance.

 

The printer driver controls the connection settings, and works with the printing application to generate print commands that are sent to the printer.

 

Up to date printer driver

Verify you have the latest printer driver installed for your printer(s).  If your printer shows up as an Unknown Device, then you will need to reinstall your printer.  If multiple printers of the same model are installed, make sure they are all using the same driver.

 

Seagull Scientific offers many printer drivers for thermal and card printers that have been optimized to work with BarTender.  We strongly recommend using our printer drivers with BarTender, and if possible, do not install printer drivers from other manufacturers alongside Seagull printer drivers as they may conflict.

 

If Seagull does not make a printer driver for your printer, then install the latest printer driver provided by the manufacturer.

 

Tip: Consult the configuration page you just printed and verify the current printer language and the DPI of the printer.  Installing the wrong printer language may cause the printer to error or become unresponsive, and installing the wrong DPI will cause the printout to be shrunk or enlarged.

 

Refer to the following articles for assistance installing a Seagull driver:

 

Drivers by Seagull PDF

Installing Drivers by Seagull™

Printer port

Verify the printer port set in the printer properties matches the printer cable connecting the printer to the computer

 

The computer communicates with the printer across the port set in the printer driver.  If the type of printer cable is changed then the port needs to be correctly adjusted to match the new cable.

 

Open Devices and Printers from the Windows Control Panel

Right click on your printer > Select Printer Properties (Note that Printer Properties is a separate option from Properties)

Select the Ports tab

Check the port that matches your printer cable

Serial cable: Com1, Com2, etc

 

Parallel cable: LPT1, LPT2, etc

 

USB cable: USB1, USB2, etc

 

Ethernet cable: TCP/ IP address, RAW port (default ports are 8000 and 9100), LPR

 

Click Apply

Note: Hybrid cables, such as a USB to serial cable, commonly need additional drivers installed for the cable to work correctly.  Refer to the cable manual or contact the cable manufacturer for assistance.

 

Test page

Verify you can print a test from the printer driver

 

Printing a test page directly from the printer driver verifies the printer driver and printer are able to communicate effectively by printing a basic page.  If your printer prints gibberish or strange characters then you may need to disable dump mode.

 

Open Devices and Printers from the Windows Control Panel

Right click on your printer > Select Printer Properties (Note that Printer Properties is a separate option from Properties)

Select the General tab

Click Print Test Page

Printer queue ready mode

Verify your print queue status is Ready.

 

Your print queue may be preventing print jobs from being sent to the printer.

 

Open Devices and Printers

Select See Whats Printing from the printer context menu (right-click the printer).

The printer status should be Ready.

If the status says Paused, then uncheck Pause from the File menu. (you may need admin privileges to control this setting).

If there is a print job in the print queue that is errored, you will need to clear it.

Right click the errored print job and select Cancel.

Turn off the printer, and restart the Print Spooler located in Windows Services.  You may need admin privileges to access and control the Print Spooler.  Wait for the Print Spooler to restart, and then turn on your printer and check the print queue status.

Turn off the printer, and then restart the computer.  Wait for the computer to finish launching Windows, and then turn on the printer and check the status of the print queue.

If the print queue will not clear the status, or immediately errors, then you may need to double check all the setting of your printer driver, and potentially reinstall the printer.

Check your printing application (BarTender)

The printing application, in this case BarTender, controls many of the print settings.

 

New simple document

Verify a new simple document prints correctly.

 

You may have an issue caused by a specific label rather than with your entire BarTender application.  If the issue does not reproduce when printing a new simple document, then you can now use this document as a baseline to compare settings against your problematic document.

 

Page setup settings

Verify your page setup settings match your stock.

Open the new simple document you created in the previous step and the problematic document, and then compare the Page Setup settings.  Change any settings in the problematic document to match the settings in the new simple document. 

 

If you skipped creating a new simple document, then you can use the following steps to check your page setup. We recommend measuring your stock with a ruler as opposed to using the dimensions listed on the labeling package. If the backing of the stock is of a greater width or height than the items, then measure the size of the backing (ie. edge to edge and perforation to perforation).

 

For more information refer to the help documentation Page Setup Dialog.

 

Note: Your text may print as a barcode if the font selected is a barcode font.  Change the font to a text font (ie. Arial) to correct this issue.

 

Copy incapable printer

Set alternative method to control copies.

 

If you find that the wrong number of copies is printing when you have the number of copies set to a data source, then you may have a printer that is incompatible with how BarTender handles the number of copies. 

 

To resolve this issue you need to change a setting that tells BarTender how to interact with the printer:

 

 

If you require further information please feel free to contact us via any of the methods below ; 
E-mail : teknik@akmazbarkod.com
Tel : +90 212 652 25 50