After years of trouble-free use, my blaster 242003-012 leaves a blank strip in the large bar code labels leaving them useless. cleaning doesn't seem to help. suggestions?

did you leave the gas in it from last year? if so the jet is probabbly clogged and or the float stuck close. the old gas will gum up and evaporate and leave the old oil behind. take the carb off and dissasemble. take the float out and clean everything out. just pay attention if you have never do this before.

can be a problem on the thermal roller, have you try to clean print head first..?

There is likely toner on the laser shield glass. The laser shield glass is located just below the toner hopper -- should be covered by a small plastic cover held in by 1 screw. Remove this screw, pull off the cover, and gently slide the glass strip out. Clean the glass with a dry lint-free cloth then reinsert it and put the cover back on. Your blank strip should be gone.

The simple fix is to clean the reference strip under the glass. There is a white strip under the left edge of the glass that the scanner reflects off of in order to set up the scanner bulb intensity. When this strip gets dirty the the machine just keeps trying. I would remove the cover on the left side glass area with the 4 screws. On the bottom side you will see the white strip. Clean this with glass cleaner. While your in there I would go ahead and remove the large glass. Turn off the main power and pull out the scanner bar and clean 3 mirrors. One is the "slot" in the main scanner bar and then the 2 in the assembly to the left that trails the main scanner bar. Once cleaned put it all back together and this scanner bar "referencing" issue wil go away. If it does not (which is rare) then there is a problem with the scanner/ccd unit and the machine is really not worth repairing at this point.
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The light bar bumping back and forth means the machine is trying to reference the exposure lamp intensity. Usually this is solved by cleaning the white reference strip which is under the plastic edge guide. The guide is the part with the document size numbers on it. Removing this piece and cleaning the white strip under it will usually solve this problem.
Good Luck and Thank You for using Fixya.

Sir,

If you place and orginal on the large glass and may a copy does the strip dissapear? If not it could be cleaning blade drum fuser unit? If the strip does leave then you have a problem with the docfeeder glass small long glass next to the big glass. Clean it!

Btw, I’m available to help over the phone in case u need at https://www.6ya.com/expert/normanj_7893313f0751935f

It needs to be cleaned.

You need to calibrate. Hold down the feed key while powering the printer on, then let go. The printer will calibrate, print a config label, then fo into dump mode. Press the fee key again to go out of dump. Of your issue persists, there could be a problem with yoru media, or with the commands that you are sending to the printer.

The encoder strip may have gone out of range of the sensor, or it might be dirty .

Resolution

You need to check the encoder strip on the printer. This is a clear strip running the length of the printer, above or behind the cartridge carrier.

Encoder strip is a transparent strip which is behind the cartridge carrier ,This strip is very delicate handle with care please do not apply to much stress as this may break the strip and make ur printer useless

Check the encoder strip
Switch off the printer using the power button.
Disconnect the power cable from the back of the X5100
Leave the power cable disconnected for 30 seconds.
Slide the cartridge carrier to the middle of the printer by taking the top part of the belt and moving it gently to the right.
Take out both cartridges.
Place an index finger on the encoder strip on either side of the cartridge carrier.


The red arrow points to the encoder strip. Click here for an enlarged view.
On the back of the cartridge carrier, there is a small slot that the encoder strip fits into. Slightly push the encoder strip down and then back up to get it into the slot.
Lightly press the strip first to the rear and then forward, if necessary.
Clean the encoder strip with a dry tissue. Also clean the contacts of the printer.

Perform the hardware test first without cartridges and then with both cartridges.

Using the operator panel on the printer:

Press the Option button 10 times until Cartridges appears on the LED display.
Press the + button four times or until Self test appears on the LED Display.
Press Select. The printer should print a sheet of paper with one black bar and one grey bar.
If the printer fails to print, remove both cartridges and try the test again. It will feed the paper through and print a blank page.
If the test works with no cartridges in the printer, run it again with one cartridge at a time installed.

Make a standalone copy.

If the copy is satisfactory, repeat the test once to confirm that the error is gone.

Try with 50% alcohol.