Our Dell 3100CN printer blocks out a 3/4" black line print area on the right side. We replaced the printer drum unit and it didn't fix the problem. The color appears to print OK in the same area.

Usually this is occurs when the drum needs to be changed.

Its the toner cartridges blocking the laser from hitting the drum unit. You need to remove each toner cartridge and re-seat it. It can drive you nuts. Steven 818-888-0006

It sounds like you've got contamination on the drum cartridge or on one of the toner cartridges.

I'm actually going to be installing black toner in my 3100cn in about 8 hours, so I'll inspect and clean each of the carts, and write up the process for you tonight.

Copied from the Dell community forums:

This is from a previous post and may help with your problem. I have printed 1000's since I came up with this fix with no recurrence of any streaking. Let me know how this works for you. I have come up with the cause and a fix for the above problem. This also fixes the problem of lines running the direction of paper travel on color prints. Black and white prints are OK. If you have a warranty on your printer or drum unit then you can have the drum unit replaced and hope you get a good replacement drum unit. To fix your drum unit do the following: 1. Remove the drum unit from your 3100cn. 2. Set the drum unit on a clean level surface and avoid touching the drum or the transfer belt (the decal with 4 arrows points to the transfer belt). 3. Remove the 6 screws from the top cover (the cover has the blue handle attached). Two screws are on top at both ends of the blue handle. The next 2 screws are on the sides and line up with the decal with 4 arrows. The last 2 screws are also on the sides and at the lower corners of the big decal that shows how to remove the drum unit from the 3100cn. 4. Carefully lift the cover from the drum unit and cover the drum unit with clean paper to protect the transfer belt from bright light. You can carefully reinstall the drum unit without the top cover and run some color prints. If the lines are gone then continue with step 5. 5. Look at the ribbed side of the top cover. Some may show some toner build-up. Some of the rib intersections are too high and are dragging in the toner that is applied to the transfer belt. The ribs are there to add stiffness to the cover and to keep it from bowing. 6. Place the cover handle side down on a clean towel. 7. Using a palm sander with 320 grit sandpaper and light pressure (the weight of the palm sander) sand until the ribs going both directions are showing signs of being sanded. You will be able to see the difference as unsanded areas will be glossy and sanded areas will have a dull finish. 8. Switch to 600 grit paper and do a light sanding. 9. Wash the cover under cool water. Don't use hot water since that could cause the cover to bend. 10. Dry completely. I used compressed air. 11. Reinstall the cover to the drum unit. Tighten the 4 side screws first and then the 2 top screws last. 12. Put the drum unit back into the 3100cn and try a color print. 13. Please post if you have any questions about the procedure. 14. If your next drum unit has the same problem you can swap top covers.

Message Edited by Ron13863 on 09-04-2007 07:16 AM

Try the cleaning rod. visit: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/3100cn/en/ug/section22.html
for images (under replacing the "cleaning rod pad") for where to find the cleaning rod. You likely don't need to replace the pad, just use the rod (pull out and push in 10X) and try to print again.

Cheers

Refer to the following table
Cause
Solution
How common*
Contamination in the laser path
1. Clean the laser path. (Remove the laser/scanner assembly and clean the lens.) 2. Replace the laser/scanner assembly
8
Defective fuser.
Replace the fuser assembly
3
Lack of toner or faulty toner cartridge.
Redistribute the toner in the toner cartridge. If the problem continues, replace the toner cartridge.
7

Dell printers are junk. But you have put a lot of money into this thing. Check the alignment of the black drum, could be that something is keeping if off track a little bit.

You can check with Dell to see if there is a maintenance kit for this printer. I know that there is one for the HP counterpart. You will probably need to replace the fuser, and maybe the pickups and rollers, but as I said I am not sure if Dell has a maintenance kit for these machines.

Hi,
I don't know if this will help but I was getting smears on the right side of the paper where there was no printing. I came acrossed this and it worked for me. Open up the front cover and lift the top cover and remove the drum cartridge. Then with cartridge out remove the left and right screw on the side of the cartridge. This will give the drum belt room without hitting the cartridge case. The cartridges plastic was not formed well.

Skip

You can get the manuals for the 3100cn printer from the Dell support website (http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/3100cn/en/index.htm). They include some troubleshooting steps for determining what is causing a number of different problems with the printer. Did you make sure there was nothing blocking the toner on that side of the toner cartridges you replaced? If you haven't already tried it, I would also suggest cleaning the printer to see if that fixes the print problems you are seeing. The User's Guide (in the link above) has a section describing how to do this. If that doesn't fix things, run the tests for print quality and contact Dell support (contact information is in the manual, or on the Dell.com website). Hopefully this will help you get the problem fixed if you haven't already done so. Larry Dell Customer Advocate