POS System Prints But Will Not Open the Drawer.
Fix It in Five Minutes.
If the receipt prints and the drawer stays shut, you have already eliminated most of the hardware. The fault is almost always a driver option, a software setting or the trigger cable between printer and drawer — and it takes minutes, not hours.
This Guide Starts Where the Symptom Points
A working printer with a dead drawer is a much narrower problem than a dead printer. The symptom has already done half the diagnosis, so this page deliberately skips layers that cannot be at fault.
Is the drawer dead in every situation, including the printer’s forced-open button? Then it is not a setting, and this is the wrong page. Start with the full checklist in cash drawer will not open, which covers the physical lock, the trigger cable and the solenoid.
The short version
- 1 Print a self-test from the printer itself. If the drawer fires, the drawer and cable are good and the fault is in the driver or the software.
- 2 Enable the open-drawer option in the printer driver and set the trigger pin to Pin 2.
- 3 Run one cash sale through the POS application and watch the drawer.
That sequence resolves the large majority of cases. The rest of this page explains why each step works and what to do when one of them fails.
Match the Symptom to the Setting
Every row below resolves to a driver or software configuration rather than a part. That is the defining feature of this fault.
| What you see | First check | Likely layer |
|---|---|---|
| Prints every time, drawer never opens | The open-drawer option in the printer driver | Driver |
| Opens on a cash sale but not on a card sale | Which payment types are bound to the drawer | Software |
| Opens on the first receipt, then stops | A kick-out setting that reverted on restart | Driver |
| Stopped when a new printer was installed | The old printer held the setting, the new one does not | Driver |
| Drawer fires but the receipt prints late or not at all | The kick command placed before the print command | Software |
| Works in the printer test tool, not in the POS app | The POS app never sends the kick command | Software |
Why the First Three Layers Are Skipped
The six-layer method used across this series normally starts at power. Here the symptom has already crossed those layers off, and re-checking them wastes time.
Layer 1 — Power: skipped
A printer that produces a clean receipt is powered, has completed its start-up sequence and is out of any error state. The drawer pulse is generated by that same mainboard, so the power path is already proven. There is nothing left to test at this layer.
Layer 2 — Cable: one segment only
The host cable is proven by the fact that the receipt printed. That leaves a single remaining link: the trigger cable between the printer and the drawer. Check that it is fully latched at both ends, then substitute a known-good cable rather than inspecting the original — a broken conductor inside a molded connector is invisible from the outside.
Layer 3 — Media: skipped
Paper is feeding and printing, so the media path, the roll orientation and the printhead are all working. There is no consumable involved in opening a drawer, and nothing at this layer can stop the kick pulse. Skipping it is deliberate, not an omission.
Layers 4 and 5: Where the Fault Almost Always Is
These two layers hold almost every real case. Work through the driver first, because it is the faster of the two to inspect and the more common culprit.
The Printer Driver
Open the printer properties, then the device settings, and look for an option named open drawer, kick-out or cash drawer. The wording differs between drivers, but the effect is identical: it tells the printer to fire the trigger port.
- →Enable the option and apply it, then retest from the same machine
- →Set the trigger pin to Pin 2. A drawer wired for Pin 2 will not respond at all if the driver fires a different pin
- →After a printer change, assume this option is off. It does not carry across from the old unit
The POS Application
The application usually keeps its own drawer setting, independent of the driver. Even with the driver configured correctly, a purchase that the software has not been told to kick will print a receipt and leave the drawer shut.
- →Confirm which payment types and actions are bound to the drawer — cash and change are usually included, card-only sales often are not
- →Check the receipt template still contains the trigger command; a template replaced during an update drops it silently
- →Confirm the kick command is sent after the print command, not before
Why Pin 2 matters. The trigger connector carries more than one signal line. On the drawers used with these printers the drive signal is on Pin 2, with Pin 4 supplying the rail and Pin 3 returning a status signal. A driver configured for a different pin sends its pulse down a line the drawer is not listening to, and the result is nothing at all — not a weak or partial opening, but complete silence.
The Five-Minute Isolation Path
Three tests, in this order, settle nearly every case. Each one narrows the fault to a single side of the system.
Print a self-test from the printer itself
Use the printer’s own self-test, not a test page sent from the computer. If the drawer fires during the self-test, the printer and the drawer are both good and the fault is entirely in the driver or the application — go straight to step two. If the self-test prints but the drawer stays shut, the fault is between the printer and the drawer, and the fuller checklist applies instead.
Reading the result: a self-test page is generated inside the printer, with no involvement from the computer, its driver or the POS software. Anything that works during a self-test cannot be a host-side or software problem, which is what makes this test decisive.
Enable the open-drawer option in the driver
Open the printer driver device settings and turn the open-drawer option on, setting the trigger pin to Pin 2 while you are there. Apply the change and reprint a normal receipt from the computer. A drawer that fires at this point is fixed.
Run one cash sale through the POS application
With the driver configured, make a test transaction using a cash tender. If the drawer opens, the fault is resolved. If it prints but does not open, the application is not sending the kick command for that purchase, and the fix moves to the payment-type binding or the receipt template. If a card sale behaves differently from a cash sale, the difference is in that binding rather than in any hardware.
If all three tests fail, the printer is not firing the trigger port at all, and the fault sits between the printer mainboard and the drawer. Work the full chain in cash drawer will not open.
⚠ Do not work around this with a per-transaction rule. Setting the drawer to open on every single transaction hides the real configuration problem and creates two new ones: it wears the solenoid and the lock plate far faster, and it leaves the till standing open during card-only sales, when no cash is being handled. Fix the setting rather than masking it.
What You Can Fix and What Needs a Specialist
Almost everything on this page is a setting you can change yourself. Only a short list genuinely needs someone else.
✓ You can do this on site
- ✓Enable the open-drawer option in the printer driver
- ✓Set the driver trigger pin to Pin 2
- ✓Bind payment types and actions to the drawer in the POS app
- ✓Substitute the trigger cable with a known-good one
- ✓Re-apply the settings after a printer or terminal change
! Needs software vendor or supplier
- ·The POS application itself not sending the kick command
- ·A receipt template that has to be rebuilt to restore the trigger
- ·A damaged trigger port on the printer
Note the difference from the companion guide. A drawer that never opens at all is a hardware question, and it belongs in the full checklist. A drawer that fails only during normal trading, while the printer keeps printing, is a configuration question and belongs here. Getting this split right saves the most time of anything on this page. If the drawer has to be replaced rather than reconfigured, the models are listed under manual cash drawers, and the rest of the set sits in the troubleshooting index.
Stop It Happening Again
This fault returns at the worst moments — a printer swap, a software update, a new till. All four habits below are about those moments.
Add it to the swap checklist
Put the open-drawer setting on the checklist for every printer or terminal change. It never carries across on its own.
Record the pin on the unit
Write Pin 2 on a label inside the printer or under the till so the next technician does not have to rediscover it.
Do not open on every sale
Using a blanket rule as a workaround wears the solenoid faster and leaves cash exposed on card-only sales.
Keep a configured spare
A spare printer with the driver already installed and configured turns a failed unit into a five-minute swap.
Related Troubleshooting Guides
This page handles the setting. Its companion handles the hardware.
Cash Drawer Will Not Open Automatically
The drawer is dead in every situation, including the forced-open test — the full hardware chain.
POS Printer Not Printing
When the printer itself stops, work the checks in order from power through to the driver.
Receipt Printer Printing Blank Paper
The printer runs and feeds, but the paper comes out empty — paper and printhead checks.