C5100

The Okidata C5100 is a color laser printer that found its home in small and midsize offices needing reliable everyday color. It runs on OKI's Type C6 cartridge family: black 42804504, with yellow 42804501, magenta 42804502 and cyan 42804503 as the standard color cartridges. For heavier color workloads the C5100 also accepts high-yield versions of its three colors — the 42127401 yellow, 42127402 magenta and 42127403 cyan stocked on this page — each holding more toner than the standard Type C6 fills.

What keeps a printer of this generation on desks long after newer models arrive is predictability: four separate cartridges, each replaced on its own, and a design where a single exhausted color never idles the machine. The C5100's owners tend to print the unglamorous backbone of an office — invoices with a color logo, charts, labels, the occasional presentation — and the Type C6 setup matches that work, because the black cartridge carries the text load while the three colors are spent only where a page actually uses them.

Toner Cartridges for C5100

The high-yield color cartridges sold on this page are:

Cartridge	Color	Page Yield
42127401	Yellow (high yield)	See product page
42127402	Magenta (high yield)	See product page
42127403	Cyan (high yield)	See product page

The printer's standard Type C6 cartridges — 42804501 yellow, 42804502 magenta, 42804503 cyan and 42804504 black — are the lighter fills of the same family.

Which cartridge should you buy?

The decision turns on how much of your printing is actually color. Where color is a garnish — a masthead here, a graph there — the standard Type C6 fills are the economical habit, and you change a color only when the printer reports it low. Where color pages roll out daily, the high-yield colors on this page are the better arithmetic: more toner per cartridge means fewer swaps and a lower cost for every color page, and the benefit lands color by color, so a heavy yellow user can upgrade yellow alone. Black stays its own calculation — text volume decides how fast 42804504 empties, independent of the colors entirely.

Chip, toner and everyday use

The C5100 tracks each cartridge separately and tells you exactly which one is low, so resist replacing colors in a set out of habit — that discards toner you already paid for. If black text starts picking up a color tint, run the automatic color calibration from the menu before blaming a cartridge; registration drift is a calibration matter, not a supplies one. A dry cloth across the LED lens strips clears the haze that dusty lenses can leave on one side of the page. Yields are rated at 5% coverage, and color graphics cover far more of the sheet than text does, so color cartridges empty faster than naive page counts suggest.

Frequently Asked Questions

What toner fits the OKI C5100?

The Type C6 family: yellow 42804501, magenta 42804502, cyan 42804503 and black 42804504 in standard fills, or the high-yield colors 42127401 yellow, 42127402 magenta and 42127403 cyan sold here. Each color has its own cartridge and is replaced individually.

My C5100 prints with a color tint on black text. How do I fix it?

That is usually a color registration or calibration issue. Run the automatic color calibration from the menu, then print a test page. If the tint persists on one side, clean the LED lens strips with a dry cloth before considering any cartridge change.

Can I replace just one color cartridge on the C5100?

Yes. The C5100 is designed for individual replacement, so when magenta runs out you only buy the magenta — 42127402 in high yield, or 42804502 in the standard fill. The printer tracks each cartridge separately and names the one that is low.