Zebra Technologies Repair PAUSE TEST

By Timmy Thermal

Something is weird with your Zebra Technologies thermal printer, but you’re not sure what it is. Should you call in for printer repair or not? Well it depends. Do you have any of these symptoms?

• faded, light print outs
• some of the printout is cut off
• white or black lines streaming through your printout

Well these could be serious! To help with your troubleshooting, Zebra Technologies has a step that you can take to test your labels. It’s called a Pause Test and its function is to test your labels for quality. Just simply press down the Pause key while powering on your Zebra thermal printer. Once you release it, the LED on the front panel will turn off. Here’s what you’ll get:

* Only compatible with 200dpi type printers

During a Pause Test on your Zebra printer, the printer will pause and at this time you can press the Pause key to restart printing at the same speed that it was printing at, or you can press the Cancel key to switch to the next set of labels in the above list, or just finish your test.

You’ll notice one of several things. The first potential outcome is the labels will be perfectly printed with vibrant black ink, like the image above. If this is the case, congratulations, your printer is in great condition and you don’t require any repair.

The second outcome is that the label has white lines running up and down the label like the image below, or is faded. This can be passable, but if the lines are keeping you from printing out quality labels, you’ll need to clean your printhead, and if that doesn’t work, you’ll have to call in for repair.

It’s a quick and easy way to test to see if you need printer repair for your Zebra printer. If you are interested in more thermal printing tips, you can download our book 10_Rules_You_Should_Know_To_Keep_Your_Thermal_Printer_Operational for free right on our site. If you need printer repair, please call MIDCOM at (800) 643-2664 or chat us up on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!