Gutted. My HP 5100dtn has stopped printing 2 sides duplex

[maverick774]

Hi All.

A few weeks ago, I had a jam on my beloved HP 5100 dtn printer, this one did take me a bit of time to figure out where the jam was, but I eventually found it. Now since then, I have noticed that whenever I print out 2 sided, it only comes out on one side.

on the paper handling menu, duplex is not listed there. On the configuration web page for the printer, i.e if I go onto the printer's IP address, it says Duplex = Off.

I have removed the printer and reinstalled it to no avail, since reinstalling the drivers, there isn't an option for printing on both sides, it simply says none. It feels as though the printer doesnt detect the duplexer or doesnt know that it has a duplex feature. I just feel that when I was trying to fix the last jam, i might have done something which has disabled the duplexer as this issue started around then, I have been using the printer happily for the last 4 years. There are no errors, or messages on the screen every print job simply comes out as a single page and when printing work for the kids to do, the duplex saves us tonnes of paper.

Any ideas please ?

[Repairatrooper]

Remove the duplex unit and examine the contacts closely. I have had users get a bit of paper debris in the connectors which stopped communication. 

[maverick774]

Hello.

I have done this to no avail (checked the connection pins to ensure there is contact), this is not the first time that I have removed the duplex unit to resolve a jam, I just cannot understand what has happened here. The contacts all look fine, the drivers no longer give me the option to duplex, its almost like the printer itself isn't aware that a duplexer is installed. 

What else can I do please ?

[Repairatrooper]

the driver does not always automatically detect the presence of the duplex unit. For Windows PCs, on your computer, go to control panel>devices and printers and then right click on the icon for your printer and select "printer properties" from the drop down menu. Click on device settings and scroll down to Duplex unit  and make sure it shows as installed.

[maverick774]

I didn't have to do this when it previously worked, however I went into the settings to change it to installed. Chose duplex printing with a word document, and yet it still printed one sided. 

This issue started when I took apart the printer looking for a paper jam, is there a switch or something similar that I could have mistakenly turned off, the duplex is mounted properly on the printer and I am unsure as to what the issue is.

[Repairatrooper]

If you print the configuration page from the control panel of the printer  does it show the duplexer as installed? If yes, you have a driver/software issue. If it does not show on the configuration page then you have a hardware issue. There is no switch per say. It is just when you install the duplexer and the connector on the duplexer plugs into the printer it activates it. I have seen cases where a bit of paper gets stuck in the connector and blocks the duplexer from connecting properly.

[maverick774]

Hi,

I printed out the error logs of the printer today, and it makes an interesting read. The issue is hardware related as the printer doesnt detect the duplexer. Here are a list of the errors.

Current page count: 11,171

Error                                 Page count                         Description

13.1.50                            11,140                                  Paper feed 1. Paper late jam

13.3.10                            11,042                                 Paper feed 2. Paper late jam

13.10.18                          10,937                                 Duplex turn around, paper late jam

13.10.18                          10,371                                 Duplex turn around, paper late jam

Now, looking at the logs the page count when we last saw duplex related errors would have been when it started just based around the page count, as there are no dates within the log, its hard to say however the page count would seem consistent with when this issue started. 

Could be a faulty component on the duplexer or I have touched something that I am not supposed to touch, however I can say that there are no objects blocking the contacts between the printer and duplexer.

[maverick774]

I looked at the logs today and i found the following errors.

Current page count: 11,171
Error                Page count                    Description
13.1.50           11,140              Paper feed 1. Paper late jam
13.3.10           11,042              Paper feed 2. Paper late jam
13.10.18         10,937             Duplex turn around, paper late jam
13.10.18         10,371             Duplex turn around, paper late jam

Does anyone know how to resolve this issue with the duplexer, the printer doesnt detect the duplexer, therefore its not a software issue.