Category Archives: Fargo Printer

Fargo DTC550 Printer Head Pressure Adjustment

Head Pressure Adjustment

The following procedures provided from technical support personel are offered to balance the printhead pressure on the DTC-550 series printers. You may need to balance the printhead when the edges of the top or bottom of the the plastic ID card print too light.

Warning! Remove all jewelry, rings, watches, bracelets etc. from your wrists and hands before beginning work with the printhead. The printing edge is extremely fragile and is easily damaged. It is strongly advised that you work in a static protected area.

Loosen but, do not remove, the two peel off bar hold down screws. DO NOT let the peel-off bar come into contact with the printing edge as it may result in damage that can seriously affect print quality.
Fargo DTC550 Printhead

To balance the printhead pressure, either lower the end of the printhead that is printing light or raise the opposite end of the printhead. Typically, the printhead is assembled with the print edge at its lowest point making it necessary to raise the end of the print edge that is opposite the light edge. Usually about 1/64 of an inch is sufficient. Raising or lowering the print edge too much will result in a light edge on the opposite side of the card.

After loosening the two peel off bar hold down screws, only loosen the printhead mounting screw on the end of the printhead that you wish to raise or lower. DO NOT loosen the other printhead mounting screw.
Fargo DTC550 Print Head

Using a small pocket sized screwdriver, carefully pry the head of the loosened printhead mounting screw to raise or lower that end of the printhead.
Fargo DTC550 printhead
Fargo DTC500 printhead

After balancing the printhead pressure it may be necessary to adjust the ribbon peel-off bar to maximize print quality.

Please consult with the ID card integrator technical support area where you purchased your printer to obtain assistance for your specific printer issue prior to adjustment. For information about the Fargo DTC550 and current Fargo printers, contact our ID Card experts at 888-485-4696.

Download the Fargo HDP5000 Driver for Apple OS X Operating Systems

If you are operating a Mac computer and a Fargo HDP5000 ID card printer, you will need to download the Mac driver for the HDP5000 card printer. Standard drivers included with the printer are for PC computers. Directions from HID Global tech support for the Mac driver download are as follows:

1. Open your web browser and go to https://www.fargosupport.com/

2. On the HID support web page, select the HDP5000 card printer from the dropdown list.

3. After selecting the printer choice from the “What type of product?” list, a new list, “For what product”, will appear. Select HDP5000 from this list.

4. After selecting the HDP5000 printer, click the Go button.

5. Under the printer driver section, scroll down to the HDP5000 Macintosh Driver and click in it to download the driver.


6. Select the Save file and click the OK button. Your web browser settings will determine where the file is downloaded on your computer.

7. When the HDP5000 V1[1].0.0.4.pkg.zip finishes, you can close the Downloads window.

For more information about the Fargo HDP5000 printer or other Fargo printer models, contact our ID card experts at 888-485-4696.

Upgrade Persona C30e printers using the Fargo Workbench Utility

Following are instructions to update the Fargo C30e printers using the Fargo Workbench Utility.

1. Click the round Application button in the upper left corner of the Workbench Utility and choose “Upgrade Firmware”

2. Click the “Browse” button to browse to the firmware file. Be sure the file has been unzipped.

3. Select the firmware file and click the “Open”

4. Make sure that your printer is connected to the PC and that the print queue is empty. Then click the “OK”. The Upgrade process should proceed automatically.

For more information about Fargo ID card printers or other photo ID card systems, contact our ID card experts at 888-485-4696.

Fargo C30e – How to Install a Printer Driver

This guide shows how to install a Fargo USB printer driver using a Fargo C30e printer. The steps are very similar for all Fargo USB printers.

1. Begin by unzipping the downloaded printer driver. Use the Windows Explorer to browse to the location you downloaded the printer driver.

2. Right click the file name and choose Extract All…

3. On the Extraction Wizard, click the “Next” button.

4. Browse to the folder where you want to store the unzipped printer driver file. If you choose the default, the driver will uninstall into a subfolder of the folder where the zipped file is located. A password is not required to unzip the file. Click the “Next” button.

5. When the unzip process is complete, click the “Finish” button.

6. Verify that the USB cable is not connected to the printer.

7. Verify the file has unzipped. The extracted file should be displayed similar to the example below. Double click the symbol to the left of the driver name.

8. Click the “Run” button to begin the installation of the printer driver.

9. The InstallAware Wizard window will appear as the installer prepares to install the necessary printer driver files.

10. In the language dialog box, choose the language you wish the printer driver to use.

11. When the Collecting Information is finished, click the “Next” button.

12. In the printer connection window select “Local Connection (USB:)” and then click the “Next” button.

13. When the Ready to install window appears, click the “Next” button.

14. When the Plug and Play window appears, connect the USB cable to the PC and the Printer. If the printer is not already on, turn it on. Connect the power at this point if it is not already connected.

NOTE: If at this point the Windows Printer Wizard appears, click here for helpful information.

15. Before you can use the printer you will need to restart your PC. If you do not want to restart at this time, uncheck the “Reboot computer now” check-box. Click the “Finish” button to complete the printer driver installation.

16. To verify that the driver is installed you can check for the driver name in the Control Panel’s Add or Remove Programs list.

This completes the printer driver installation.

Fargo C30e – Downloading the Printer Driver

To download the current printer driver, firmware and Workbench utility for the Fargo and Persona printers, visit the HID tech support website to obtain the most current version of the files. They can be downloaded here.

1. Under “What type of product” select “printer” from the drop down list.

2. Find your printer model by scrolling down the model options. Choose your printer model from the “For what product” list and click the “Go” button. If you have an older printer that is not on the list, choose “Other” at the bottom of the list. Be sure to choose the correct printer model.

3.  Click on the Windows printer driver to download it.

4.  Click the Save button.

5.  Browse to the folder where you want to save the downloaded file and click the Save button.

6.  Repeat the above steps to download the “Persona C30e Firmware Windows/Linux” and if it is not already installed on your system, download the “Workbench”.

7.  Additional blog posts will be coming for installing the printer driver, firmware and workbench.

Current Fargo Printer Models:

Fargo Printer Systems

Fargo C30e

Fargo DTC 400e

Fargo DTC 550

Fargo DTC1000

Fargo DTC4000

Fargo DTC4500

Fargo HDP5000

All Fargo Printer Models

How To Uninstall a Fargo Print Driver

There are times when a print driver will need to be uninstalled from your photo ID card printer. An example of this may be when you are needing to update the printer driver and and software in your Fargo ID card printer.

Following are step by step instructions for how to uninstall the Fargo print driver.

1.To uninstall a printer driver, select Start, then menu and then control panel. Your path to the control panel may vary depending on your installation of Windows.

2. In the control panel, double click “Add or Remove Programs”.

3. Highlight the printer driver you wish to install and click the “Remove” button.

4. Verify that you are uninstalling the correct driver and click the “Yes” button.

5. When the uninstall has completed, click the “Finish” button.

The printer driver has now been removed from your PC.

The New Fargo DTC Printers

A breakthrough in direct to card printing, the Fargo DTC printer/encoders are illustrated in the following HID Global produced video. These new printers produce a fantastic ID card at an affordable price point.

[This video is no longer available, as this is not Fargo’s current line of printers. Thank you!]

Fargo DTC1000
Hassle free ribbon installation
Easy, plug and play printing
Easy to use Swift ID card application at no additional cost

Fargo DTC4000
Migrate to higher security
Moveable smart screen with on-board diagnostics
Enhanced security with UV printing
Optional same side input & output hoppers
Ugradeable encoding modules for added security

Fargo DTC4500
Maximum Security
Maximum Power
Optional single-sided lamination or dual sided, simultaneous lamination for maximum security
Print and encode inline via one USB or ethernet cable
A powerful printer for high volume printing.

For a free consultation with an ID card expert about these new Fargo printer models, contact our sales and service at 888-485-4696.
Experts in the new printer lineup: Fargo DTC1000, Fargo DTC4000 and Fargo DTC4500

Fargo DTC550 – Tips to Determine if the Printhead is Bad

Fargo DTC400e Dual If you are experiencing one of more thin white lines that travel the entire length of a printed card and the problem persists with every card, it is possible that you have a chipped, scratched or externally damaged printhead. It is also possible that it could be a blown pixel in the printhead.

To see if the printhead is damaged:

1. Clean the printer. Make sure to take special care when using the printhead cleaning pen to remove any particles stuck to the printhead.
2. Visually inspect the printhead for any remaining dirt.
3. Attempt to reprint one of the cards.
4. If the problem still persists, carefully remove the printhead.
5. Using a magnifying glass, inspect the glass edge of the printhead for scratches, chips or external damage.
6. If no damage is noticed, the printhead may have a blown pixel.

Printheads are only warrantied by evaluation processes through Fargo technical support. RMAs are needed for an evaluation to occur. If you see visible damage on your printhead, it will not be covered under your warranty, and you must purchase a new printhead.

For more information about Fargo printers and the Fargo DTC550 printer, our ID card experts can be reached at 888-485-4696.

Fargo HDP5000 – Ribbon Miscue When Printing A Test Card

We received the following question about an issue with the Fargo HDP5000

Question:

I have a HDP5000. When I try to print a test card, the printer gives me a “RIBBON MISCUE”

Answer:

To print the test card, you need to install the Fargo HDP5000 driver. To do this, follow the steps below.

1. Go to the Start button in Windows.
2. Click on printers and faxes.
3. Find and select the HDP5000 driver and right click.
4. Click on printing preferences.
5. Click on “Toolbox” button.
6. Do a ribbon calibration & film calibration From the toolbox.

Safe-Card ID is a provide of Fargo printers including the Fargo HDP5000 card printer. For more information about ID card printer systems, give our ID card experts a call at 888-485-4696.

Fargo HDP5000 Has New Mac Computer Compatibility

Fargo HDP5000

Fargo HDP5000 Printer Update

Fargo is making improvements to their quality ID card printer models.

The Fargo HDP500 is now able to be used by those operating a Mac computer. Recently the enhancement to provide compatibility with the Mac OS X v10.4 and v10.5 drivers became available.

download Download the Fargo developed driver at Fargo support.

For more information about Fargo printers or the Fargo HDP5000, contact our ID experts at 888-485-4696.