Original Toners









Spares



















OKI C5400

OKI introduced the C5200 and C5400 A4 colour LED printers in 2003 as successors to the C5100 and C5300. As OKI often did at the time:

  • the C5400 supports the PCL and PostScript print languages using 64MB or 128MB RAM and a 400MHz processor
  • whilst the C5200 is a "Windows host based printing system" which could rely on the Windows PC to format the page allowing the printer to get by with 32MB of RAM and a 200MHz processor.

Owners of both printers may now be struggling to get drivers for them as they are old. Microsoft Windows 8 apparently had drivers for the C5400. The C5200 Windows host based driver was designed for windows XP and supports a print language called "Hiper-C". Paradoxically language support for hiper-C was developed for Linux so now the C5200 probably will work with Linux but not with Windows.

The C5400 may well work with Windows but you may need to choose a generic print driver liked that for the Color LaserJet or the "HP LaserJet Family driver PS" PostScript driver.

Successors were the C5250 and C5450. They were a "marketing refresh" of the line in 2005 the big difference being that they introduced an embedded Ethernet port as standard - but started using different toners and drums.

Oki said of it …

Fast colour and mono on one affordable printer.

The revolutionary printer that brought fast, affordable 2-in-1colour to workgroups is now even faster

A genuine breakthrough in printing for business, the C5000 Series was the first range of printers to offer workgroups truly affordable, fast, high quality colour and mono printing from one compact, convenient device. The C5400 has been replaced by the newer C5450 - the best printers in their class have got even better still.

This site is dedicated to the OKI C5400 with hints and tips about how to get the best out of your OKI C5400 as well as trouble shooting and maintenance information.

OKI C5100  series cross-section

Main Features of the C5400

  • 16 pages per minute (ppm) Colour
  • 24 ppm mono print speed
  • 64MB RAM, memory upgrades available
  • Resolution 1200 x 600 dpi
  • Paper weights up to 203gsm
  • 400MHz processor speed
  • Time to first print 14 secs colour and 9 secs mono
  • Photo enhance Mode
  • Auto colour balance ensures colour consistency
  • Banner and sign printing up 1.2m

OKI printers are slightly unusual in several respects, the big one being the use of LED scanner heads rather than laser heads. This dates back to the early 1990s when laser printer diodes and polygon mirror scanners did seem a little unreliable. It is certainly true that the relatively cool running solid-state array of LEDs across the page should last longer than a laser scanner - and they do seem to. On the other hand laser scanners aren't much of an issue any more.

The other big difference is that OKI use separate toners and drums. Some industry big-brands like HP and Canon tend to produce a single-piece cartridges with toner, developer and drum all in one thing.   Seperate toners ought to give lower running costs - although they do make logistics and fault diagnosis a bit more difficult.

Duty Cycle:

50,000 pages/month

Since these printers are all more than 5 years old the service manual is quite enlightening. The intended service life of the printer was 420,000 pages or 5 years.

Upto 24ppm Black

Upto 16ppm Colour

1200 x 600 dpi

Paper Handling:

Internal tray capacity (tray 1) & paper weight: 300 sheets,80gsm

Paper size (any tray): A4, A5, B5, A6 (tray 1 only), Legal13, Legal13.5, Legal14, Letter, Executive

Multi-purpose tray: Max capacity 100 sheets of 80gsm paper. Paper sizes: A4, A5, B5, A6, C5, DL, Com-9, Com-10, Monarch, Custom Size (up to 1200mm length), Legal 13, Legal 13.5, Legal 14, Letter, Executive

Multi-purpose paper weight: 75 & 203gsm

Paper output: 250 sheets face down, 100 sheets face up 80gsm

MMA_top-right-logo

Driver Problems

These printers are being retired because they were sold in the age of Microsoft's Windows XP through to Windows 7 products.   Microsoft has stopped supporting XP and the printer brands in turn don't support the drivers - some printer manufacturers have taken the opportunity to take them off their sites - although OKI don't seem to have done that (in November 2015). Drivers are available for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 32 bit and 64 bit. However looking on the OKI.co.uk website there is nothing for the C5200 for Windows 10. A PDF called OKI NIP (Non Impact Printers) Drivers Compatibility under Windows 10 lists the C5000 series up to the C5400 under "Models Not Supported" whilst the C5500, C5600 and C5800 which use OKI's unusual Hiper-C language all say to use Windows 7 or Vista drivers.

The C5300 and C5400 both provide the PCL 5 and PostScript 3 languages which are industry standard so they ought to be capable of running even if Microsoft or OKI don't explicitly supply drivers.

Our suggestion is that a generic printer driver will probably work with the C5000 series printers that support PCL 5c and PostScript: the C5300, C5400, C5450, C5700, C5900 and C5950 .

Use Microsoft's Add Printer Wizard. and select HP. There are "HP LaserJet Family driver PCL5" for PCL and "HP LaserJet Family driver PS" for PostScript (after the numbered printers and just before the LaserJet III).

We think that the PCL driver is PCL 5e which was mono only. However PostScript 3 did support colour so it ought to work.

To get a more or less generic PCL colour driver you might use something like the Colour LaserJet which was the first PCL 5c colour printer. Microsoft also provide what seems to be a generic PCL or PostScript driver hidden in the list of HP LaserJets.

Using a driver branded HP on a printer branded OKI shouldn't matter much if the driver is not too clever. What we are after is the print language and providing that matches, things should work. Earlier drivers generally work better than later, clever ones because recent printers have more features and the drivers will expect messages back from the printer - but if the wrong printer is installed the messages won't match.

The OKI C5100, C5200, C5250, C5600, C5650, C5800 and C5850 are more of a problem. These used what OKI called a "Windows host based printing system" - or in technical documentation they sometimes call it a "GDI Printer" and other times mention it by name as "Hiper-C".

What we are looking for is Hiper-C support under Windows 8 or 10 64 bit. The OKI C301 does have it - although there is a weird caveat that the MP tray doesn't work in Windows Store Apps. It may be worth experimenting to see if it works.

Although these "Windows" printers weren't made for Linux a driver for the later emerged and that very probably will work - the printers are all listed.

Processor:

400MHz

Memory:

64MB

PostScript 3 and PCL5c and PCL6; Automatic emulation switching; Epson FX and IBM ProPrinter Dot Matrix emulations

Power:

Single phase 220 & 240 VAC, frequency 50Hz +/-2Hz

Power Consumption:

Typical 420W, Peak 950W, Idle 130W (average), Power Save 25W

Dimensions:

342 x 400 x 528 mm

Weight:

20kg approx (without consumables)

Acoustic Noise:

Operating: 54dB(A)

Standby: 37dB(A)

Power Save: background level

Consumables:

42127408 - Black Toner Cartridge capable of printing up to 5000 A4 pages at 5% density

42127407 - Cyan Toner Cartridge capable of printing up to 5000 A4 pages at 5% density

42127406 - Magenta Toner Cartridge capable of printing up to 5000 A4 pages at 5% density

42127405 - Yellow Toner Cartridge capable of printing up to 5000 A4 pages at 5% density

Fuser Unit:

42625503 - Fuser Unit - Up to 45,000 pages of A4. No fuser oil is required

Warranty:

Printers were originally supplied with a Pan European 1 year on-site warranty. Obviously that is now ten years old and outside the maximum interpretation of even Britain's warranty law.