5100Cn front door open error message?

Hey Rob,

I extracted some pictures from my service info that might be of some help. This first picture shows the linkage arm on the Drum cover that when closed, fits into the slotted opening on the chassis.

However, this does not engage the interlock switch unless the front cover is also closed. There should be a plastic "finger" inside the front cover that contacts the drum cover linkage when the front is closed, and closes the interlock switch. Sorry, I don;t have a picture of the "finger" inside the front cover, but if you slowly close the front cover and watch where it lines up with the slot in the picture above, you should be able to tell where the "finger" should be located and if it's been broken off or not.

This next picture is the actual location of the interlock switch after removal of the right-side cover.

Good Luck !!

We had this problem "Close Front Door" error message, LLynster is correct, there is a fragile "finger" of plastic that drops down from the front lip of the front door cover.  It has to "slot in" to a slot on the front edge near the drum, the actuator button is "white" plastic (while the surrounding housing is "black" plastic), the "white" plastic actuator is recessed into the slot surrounded by the "black" plastic housing.  The "white" actuator is visible by looking straight down into the front door opening, basically right in front of you, basically can't miss it, it's right in plain view as you look straight down into the machine.  

In our case the fragile "finger" of plastic had missed the slot and bent inward (left or right) so that it no longer entered the slot.  We were able to use a pen to depress the "white" actuator button, as soon as we depressed it immediately the error message went away.  We then further corrected by carefully bending the plastic "finger" back to its original vertical position, luckily it did not immediately snap off when we did this, we got it to bend back close to vertical (it still had some pull back) and gently glided it into the slot as we simultaneously slowly closed the door on it.  We plan to not open the front door from now on, if we do open the front door most likely the same process will have to be repeated in order to re-close it.  If the slot "finger" breaks off in the future we'll most likely have to glue it back or somehow otherwise replace the slot "finger" or replace the front door cover entirely.  

Probably this problem was initially caused by someone "slamming" the front door cover closed.  That would break the "finger" it is a flimsy piece of plastic hanging downward from the front door cover.  Once the "close front door" indicator goes on, it's almost certainly going to be the "finger", not the actuator, that is amiss.  So slamming won't help.  The solution is precisely the opposite -- do not slam, the mechanism is a very slim piece of plastic, instead find the piece of plastic that is misrouted, adjust it, and gently close the door while the "finger" is positioned correctly to enter the slot actuator.