OS X 10.7+ Driver for Dell 5100cn. With the discontinued support of Rosetta the Dell 5100cn OSX driver fails to load. This was always an issue in Snow Leopard as well because I really hated installing Rosetta just for a printer to be installed.
**Update – After installing this on El Capitan it will ask you to repair permissions the first time you print but it does work. **
57 responses to “Getting Dell 5100cn to work with OS X 10.7+”
I made an installer with the old 5100cn icon and instead of using the 5130cn ppd I used the 5100cn ppd from cups located at http://www.cups.org/ppd.php?L484+I80+T+Q and then used packagemaker to make a simple installer. Located at http://www.sendspace.com/file/zoq480 if you want it.
@Jeff
Can you repost the file / link? Unfortunately it doesn’t work anymore. Reverted back from El Capitan to Yosemite and lost your installer ;-(
I have uploaded the newest version to the link. Let me know if you have questions. Thanks, Chris
Jeff – can you repost? I’m in need of such driver. Thank you in advance
@Jeff
Hi, I remember my previous Sierra work perfect with your driver but now with my High Sierra and new mac I don´t find any more a working driver for my dell 5100cn.
With other solutions found on internet it work only grayscale.
Can you repost a link with your driver?
hey Stefan,
This is an updated driver of combo of both mine and Jeff’s driver- It should work in true color.
Hey Chris,
My printer has been “unreachable” since I upgraded to OS Mojave. I have reset, re-downloaded driver, restarted computer and printer several times but no luck. Any suggestions?
@Jeff
Jeff would you mind if I downloaded that file and posted it on here for others? The sendspace is a bit hard for novice users to find where to actually click download at, and my steps are not for them at all?
Chris
The Samsung 770 driver seems to work OK. See here http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20090829161726374 But this also does not support a 128mb printer, so the PPD hack may still be needed.
Jeff’s file actually works very well and is the original PPD from the Printer driver. I’m going to extract a new package for this that works more like the Dell package in the OSX Snow Leopard and I’ll get it setup and linked here.
Chris
This is super, thanks guys!!
@Jeff
Genius, pure genius. Thanks for sharing. I was hoping I didn’t have to get a new printer just because Lion didn’t wanna play nice.
I am running into the same issue for the Dell 5210n Printer. I did not follow everything that was done to make the 5100cn work but if it is not too difficult or time consuming, can someone show me how to make my 5210n printer work?
@Jeff
Thanks!!! Works like a charm!
@Jeff
Thank you Jeff. It’s work fine. 🙂
You can post the driver package directly to your site if you wish! I just put it on sendspace because it was easy for me to do.
@jeff.
it works well with lion too (10.7.2). I wonder if there was a way to make it see my 1.1 GB memory
Thanks a lot. So very helpful! !
I copied the updated Dell driver to /private/etc/cups/ppd but I don’t see it when I try to (re)configure the printer using System Preferences. This driver does not appear on the list. When I copied the file to /library/printers/PPDs and then select it from System Preferences->Printers and Fax -> Add Printer, I get a “some components missing” error.
What am I missing/doing wrong?
David, try the new installer posted above.
THANKS! That worked!
I tried the installer Jeff posted on a brand new imac with Lion 10.7.2 and it just pauses after printing and i get the following error message:
/usr/libexec/cups/backend/lpd failed
any ideas?
Jeff -You’re awesome. This has been a pain for so many months. Why couldn’t Dell have provided this?
Just got a new MacBook Pro with OS X 10.7.4 and this didn’t work for me. The print button just blinks when I press it, same as before. This is my first Mac. Anyone else on 10.7.4? Thanks!
I run the driver on both 10.7.4 and 10.8 (Mountain Lion). Are you doing it USB or IP?
Was trying to do it over the network– it’s in another room here at my new office. I never entered the printer’s IP anywhere, it just showed up when I chose “Add another printer.” After selecting it, I chose “Dell Laser Printer 5100cn v3015.102 PS” under “Select Printer Software.” Thank you so much for exploring this with me, by the way…
More than a year ago I spend hours to get my Dell 5110cn running and to print in color. Dell support informed me they do not support a driver for mac (why do they call it support then?).
By coincidence, I picked the topic up again and ended up on this site. And it works PERFECT!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! You are great!
so I am on 10.8.1 and I downloaded the 5100 pkg installer to install a network’d printer but when I go to select a printer driver, I end up with a blank list, what am I doing wrong?
Just wanted to say THANKS A LOT !!!
This driver is perfect, finally no more headache to configure this printer … Shame on Dell for not supporting it properly.
Awesome Jeff. Thanks for saving my printer.
Thank you!
AWESOME!!! Works great….
Thank you! Seems to work in 10.8 as well.
Just found this on an Internet search. I’m about to change my Mac and will have to upgrade to Mountain Lion with the new one. My expensive (for me) Dell 5100 has been the main reason why I’ve stuck with Snow Leopard on my old one. Could be a lifesaver – thanks!
Hi, for months I had my 5100cn working using this driver (thanks so much!). A few weeks ago I had to reinstall my OSX Lion and when I try to print, after providing my username and password I get the message ‘connection refused’. Is there any default username or password for 5100cn?
only thing I can think by default is admin/password.
Thanks so much for your suggestion but, besides admin/password, I have already tried other username/password combination (OSX user credential, null/null). No way. The question is why, before reinstalling Lion, I never got username/password request to print on 5100cn, while now I get.
Try deleting the printer and reinstalling it. Maybe a button was clicked that wasn’t supposed to be clicked.
chris
I am trying to run this on 10.8.5 and when I try to print I get a ‘Filter’ Failed message in the print queue. I am running this as an IP printer, not USB. Any ideas?
I’m using it in 10.8.5 but I did it from an upgrade from Lion so i’m not sure exactly. I think I can create a new driver based on how it upgraded but It’ll be some time as I’m really busy with other projects right now.
Thanks!
Hello,
more than 2 year ago you really helped me out with your development. Now, as I updated to OS X Maverick the printer doesn’t react any longer 🙁
Will you update your driver by any chance?
Best regards from Austria,
Bernhard
Awesome, thanks for posting this! I just installed it on Mavericks and it works great.
Thank you so much for posting this.
I tried using the installer Jeff posted with Maverick but I just get an error “unable to verify printer on your network”. Anybody have any suggestions?
I was glad to find this. I’ve got a 10.9 server and a lab of 10.7.5 workstations. The installer worked great on the 10.9 server, and my personal 10.8 workstation, but none of the 10.7.5 workstations will recognize the printer after installing that driver package. They all continue to default to “Generic postscript”
Any other updates or any prerequisites that might be missing for it to work in 10.7.5?
I’ve had this do this for me before too, but if you’ll force the driver to find the 5100 by searching in the list it will work properly.
Plot Twist: When I go search for the available printer drivers the list is totally empty.
Where is the driver getting placed during the installation? Is there somewhere on the file system itself I can navigate to to find the actual driver?
search for 5100
I downloaded the 5100 installer but can’t seem to find it afterwards and don’t know how to connect it to the actual Dell installer. I am trying to help my brother to whom I gave my 5100cn printer, but I am not familiar with Mac and he doesn’t know how to do it either. Could someone give us the steps to do this? Thanks! System Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5
Never mind, we found the solution and got the printer installed and working! Thanks for your great site and your help.
Wonderful, I got this working on a networked 5100cn running on Yosemite. They’ve had this device sitting in their room for years unused and they are ecstatic now. Thank you all for this.
I have installed the driver and can find the printer via IP-adress fine, but it still says “Printer not responding”. Anyone knows the answer?
Installed the driver, repaired permissions as described (thank you for that), but I still get a “Printer not responding”. Any suggestions? 🙂
I had the printer is not responding issue and solved it by deleting the printer and adding it again. I have the printer configured as a network printer and selected Line Printer Daemon – LPD under protocol. It worked after that.
Chris,
Thanks for posting this! Helped me a ton a year ago when I started my first office job and was able to get everyone’s Macs working. However, since updated to OS Mojave every time I try to print I get an error that reads “The printer is unreachable at this time.” I have deleted and reset the printer, re-downloaded the driver, and restarted computer and printer several times. Any advice?
make sure you set to line Printer Daemon when installing under protocol