Fargo DTC4500e Support

Use the Printer driver button above for Windows. Run the installer, then connect the printer by USB and turn it on. When the printer shows up in Printers & scanners, print a test card to confirm everything works.

Most printers rarely need it. Update only if our support team asks you to, or to fix a known issue. Download it from Firmware update above, then install Fargo Workbench from the same HID page. In Workbench open Update Manager, select the printer, choose the firmware file and send it. Keep the printer on until it restarts.

Do not turn off or unplug the printer while it updates. If you would rather not do it alone, call us and a technician will run it with you over remote support.

All of them, including Windows 11. The Fargo DTC4500e driver and Bodno ID Card Software both work on any version of Windows. Get them from the downloads above.

No. The Fargo DTC4500e works with Windows computers only. If you print from a Mac, call us at (732) 987-5300 and we will go over Mac-compatible printers.

In Printing Preferences, click Test Print. Without a computer: hold the Pause button for 4 seconds while the printer is idle to print a card with its settings, or hold Pause while turning it on for the alignment and self-test cards.

If the test card prints cleanly but your cards do not, the problem is in the software or the card design, not the printer.

Ribbons made for the Fargo DTC4500e:

• Fargo 45200 Color Ribbon for DTC4500e - YMCKO - 500 prints $199.00
• Fargo 45230 Color Ribbon for DTC4500e - YMCKO - 700 prints $249.00
• Fargo 45231 Color Ribbon for DTC4500e Dual-Sided - YMCKOK - 600 prints $299.00

Cards: CR80 PVC cards, 9 to 40 mil. Set Card Thickness in the driver’s Card tab to match your cards. Most badges are printed on 30 mil cards, like our Bodno CR80 30 mil PVC cards. Keep them in the box until you load them, because dust and fingerprints show up on the print.

• Bodno Cleaning Kit for Fargo DTC1250e, DTC4250e, DTC4500e & C50 – Cards & Swabs (Fargo 86177 Compatible) $59.99

Fargo recommends cleaning the rollers about every 1,000 prints, and right away if you see specks, dots or lines on your cards.

A red blinking Pause button means an error, and the number shows on your computer and the printer’s screen. Fix it, then press Pause to retry or On/Off to cancel the job.

• 81 Unable to Feed, 70 Multiple Feed: set Card Thickness in the driver’s Card tab to match your cards, make sure the cleaning roller is fitted on the ribbon cartridge, fan the cards, and run a cleaning if cards slip.
• 68, 110, 112 Card Jam: clear the card and press Pause.
• 44, 131 Flipper Jam: clear the card from the flipper. The flipper table should sit level. If it is tilted, open the output door, level it by hand and turn the printer off and on.
• 25 Ribbon not installed, 91 Ribbon Out: install a new ribbon.
• 93 Wrong Ribbon: the ribbon type chosen in the driver doesn’t match the ribbon in the printer.
• 97, 99, 113 Ribbon Error: the ribbon broke or jammed. Tape it back onto the take-up core and calibrate the ribbon sensor.
• 100 Ribbon RFID, 128, 170 Calibrate Ribbon: check the driver’s ribbon setting, try another ribbon, and calibrate the ribbon sensor.
• 106 Job Data Error: check the cable, cancel and send the job again.
• 30, 31, 202: encoding problem, or the job asks for an encoder the printer doesn’t have.
• 2, 3, 8, 9, 64 to 66, 107, 111: turn the printer off and on. If it repeats, contact us.

Rollers and platen (about every 1,000 prints):

1. Open the front cover, take out the ribbon and close the cover. Empty the card hopper.
2. Peel the backing off both sides of a cleaning card. On printers with a magnetic encoder, leave the small liner strip on, because it protects the magnetic head.
3. Push the cleaning card into the single-card feed slot until it stops. On encoder models, insert it printed side up with the liner strip toward the front.
4. Printing Preferences › Card tab › Toolbox › Clean Printer › Clean. The printer pulls the card through and cleans itself.

Printhead: turn the printer off and unplug it, take out the ribbon cartridge, snap a printhead swab to wet the tip and wipe it back and forth across the printhead. Let it dry fully before printing.

Every ribbon cartridge has its own cleaning roller, so you get a fresh one with each ribbon. A missing roller is a common cause of feed errors. The cleaning reminder is set under Toolbox › Advanced Settings › Cleaning Rate (default 3,000 cards).

• Image Color tab: the Dye-Sub Intensity (YMC) slider makes colour lighter or darker. Set Resin Dither to Graphics for logos and drawings, or Photos for pictures.
• Image Calibrate tab: the Vertical and Horizontal controls move the whole print area, up to 100 pixels each way (10 pixels is about 0.8 mm).
• Card tab › Toolbox › Advanced Settings: Print Top of Form and Print Left of Form shift the image in steps of 0.01 inch. Resin Heat Adjust (±100) fixes faded or heavy black text and barcodes. Keep Image Darkness moderate, because too much heat can jam or break the ribbon. Restore Defaults undoes everything.

Printing Preferences › Overlay / Print Area tab. Choose the front or back, then pick Omit Mag Strip Area, Omit Smart Chip Area or Omit Signature Area. You can also draw your own areas with Defined Area(s), and choose whether an area skips only the overlay or the printing too.

The K Panel Resin tab works the same way to control where solid black resin prints.

Only printers with the magnetic encoder module can encode. In Printing Preferences › Magnetic Encoding, leave ISO Encoding on (the default) and set Coercivity to match your cards: high coercivity (HiCo) is 4000 Oe, low coercivity (LoCo) is 300 Oe.

Your card software sends each track as text that starts with a tilde and the track number, for example ~1%JOHNSMITH^1234567890? for track 1 and ~2;1234567890? for track 2. To check every card after encoding, tick Enable Mag Verify under Toolbox › Advanced Settings.

Three things, in this order: the printer driver, Bodno ID Card Software, then a test card. Activate the software with the code from your purchase email. If activation does not go through, see Activation & license help or call us.

• Your printer model and the serial number from the label on the printer
• A photo of the card or the error message
• Your Windows version
• USB or Ethernet
• Your order number, so we can check your coverage, including TotalCare