5100cn with faded color

The last page (Gradation test page) tells me all I need to see. The color clutch in your developer drive assembly has failed, that's why you only get the leading edges of color, but black appears OK.

The part you need to call and purchase is the Developer Drive Assy, P/N H6702.

Ugh, that's what I was afraid of. Thanks for confirming it, though. I saw other people complaining about lack of instructions for installing the developer on here.. is this part easily replaceable by an end user, and are there instructions online? I'm handy with PC assembly but I'm not too experienced with printers.

Thanks again!!!

Sent you a PM.....

I think a friend of mine has the same problem.  She prints multiple copies of the same page and the first page comes out fine but the remainder start fading more and more.  Black comes out fine, it is just the color that has the problem.  Does this sound like the same resolution will help her?  Thx.

If just the top edge of colors print and immediately fades out, and black prints fine, then yes... sounds like the same problem.

Thanks Llynster.  Hmmm, then maybe not.  She sets the printer to print 6 copies and the first page prints correctly but from then on the pages colors begin to fade more and more  like you are reducing the density on each page until you hit 0.  Any help?

This might still be the color clutch (part of the Developer Drive Assy). Sometimes the clutch doesn't fail completely, but begins to slip in a progressively worse manner as it's running.

NO guarantee's. One of the best tests to use is the "Gradation" test page in customer diagnostic mode.

Thanks.  I am going to their house today and will let you know the results.

If you have the means, please upload an image here and tell me what you named it.... pictures speak a thousand words.

I had a similar problem except mine is with the black, the color seems ok but the black is very faded, almost unlegible.  We just replaced the black toner, fuser kit, drum kit, and transfer roller and still the darn thing is printing black extremely faded.

This has been very frustrating, any assistance would be great!

Pull out the imaging drum unit and have a look at the black mag roller. Does the "fuzzy" coating seem less dense than the colors?

I'm wondering if you have a problem with the toner supply motor.

What's the page count on this printer?

Hi,  I know that this was a lot time ago but I have the same printer as you and I believe the same problem.  If I print something with black & color the color comes out super fine but the black comes out very faint.  I did a dev cleaning on the black toner and it start doing a very grinding sound from it.  Did you manage to fix this issue??  Thanks for any help that you can give me.

It sounds to me like the black toner motor gearbox has stripped a few teeth. It's part of the Toner Dispenser Assy. Dell p/n G6599 (for 5100cn), TF123 (for 5110cn)

Do you know how to use the diagnostics mode in the printer? If so please run Digital Output test DO-4e. This will run the black toner drive motor. Run it no longer than about 15 seconds. Please let me know what you hear. You can compare what you hear with any of the other toner motors; DO-48(Y), -4a(M), -4c(C)

Are you using genuine Dell toner? If not, this is probably only the beginning of more problems. The company that makes these printers for Dell has a trade secret on the toner formulation. Compared with 3rd party toners, it is not the same and they will eventually ruin the inner workings of the printer.

My 5100cn has black fading. It worked great until we changed the black cartridge, then the fading started. I checked with a second cartridge with the same results. The printer has 200K pages, all with Dell toner. When I run the DO-4e test, there is no grinding, in fact it may be a bit quieter than the DO-4c. After running -4e there was a slight improvement. Any suggestions?