Datamax M-Class 4208 Thermal Label Printer - Answered Questions & Fixed issues

To try to prevent scratches that ruin your thermal printhead, prevent dust from settling on the labels by covering the printer if dust is present, and storing label rolls in a cabinet or box or bag.

Press and hold the menu button and the LCD will continously go light to dark. Stop pressing the button when it is readable.

The printer must be calibrated or the type of sensor is wrong. Verify that the sensor type is correct for your label (gap or black mark) and you can calibrate it by pressing the FEED key for about 5 seconds approximately.

grab the roll and at the same time, squeeze and pull toward you. The take-up spindle will collapse slightly and the used ribbon will come right off.

Hope that helps !

This could be caused by the darkness setting coming from the label software / printer driver. It's set too low and that setting will usually override the darkness setting in the printer. That's why test labels are fine.

Hope that helps.

you need to change it your printhead

Service documents refer to calibration. It is a known issue. https://www.google.com/search?q=Datamax+O%27Neil+Mark+II+printer+prints+2+labels%2C+then+skips+one+label ..

I need more information. What system are you using to drive the printer with? If it is a Windows computer it is almost certain to be a faulty/outdated driver.

You can get labelling software such as nicelabel or bartender. They will call the info on the excel and print them out.

You need to replace the motor and the PSU.

Your program is most likely sending codes the printer does not understand. Try a test page from your driver if that works check the settings in your program. If it fails the driver test print you may have the wrong driver installed.

Have you calibrated the printer with the supplies in it?

Not sure what kind of Datamax you are looking at, but you would need to change that via the software that you are using to create the labels.

Most likely this has a ribbon, check the settings for how low before warning. http://www.datamax-oneil.com/assets/maint_manual/I-Class_M2_Maint.pdf go to page 39

Font size is regulated by the document written and the software used to write the document..

Free Windows Printer drivers for Datamax can be downloaded here: Custom Design Label Systems from Able Label Systems Look for the link toward the bottom labeled "Free Thermal Printer Drivers."

Remove the metal cover by removing the screws along the bottom left edge and one in the rear top right corner, and loosening the ones at the hinge in the top center. Then remove the screw on the media sensor, and pull the ribbon cable out of it's socket. The sensor slides out from the circuit board side of the center plane.

It's called "Present Distance" and it can be set to "0" in the printer's control panel. Look under Print Control.

There's a "Media Sensor" in the Datamax that is evidently having trouble seeing the labels. The sensor is inside of a horizontal bar above the labels and just behind the Printhead. That bar is movable. Make sure that the vertical mark, usually white, is positioned over the label - best if it is the center of the label. Also make sure that there is no label or ribbon material stuck in that area. Hold "Feed" button down for a few seconds after checking those two things to "Re-calibrate" the sensor.

check in your configuration that you are not in multiple label mode.
Use single buffer mode