Issue: Erroneous Ribbon Cartridge Faults

Printer indicates a Ribbon Out warning, but a ribbon cartridge is installed. Or a Ribbon Cartridge Authentication error occurs even when a Genuine Zebra Ribbon Cartridge is installed and has not been refurbished or altered.

Possible causes and resolutions:

The ribbon cartridge sensor contact pins or the ribbon cartridge’s smart chip’s contacts may be dirty or the chip may be damaged. Clean the ribbon cartridge’s smart chip contact, if the contacts look dirty or contaminated, clean with a lightly-moistened cotton dipped in 97.3% pure (medical-grade) alcohol. Try a different cartridge if this does not work.

Also clean the ribbon cartridge sensor contact pins. See the steps that explain how to clean the pins in Cleaning the Media Path – Upper Half of ZD421 Thermal Transfer Ribbon Cartridge Printers.