My printer is telling me Tray empty or open when in fact it is neither. It is an HP 4100

[Jayare1]

My HP4100 gives me an error message "Tray empty or open"

It is not.

How can I fix this problem?

[Anand_Andy]

Hi @Jayare1,

Welcome to the HP Support Community

I understand you are facing an issue with your HP DeskJet Plus 4100 Printer. Not to worry I will help you to get a resolution to resolve the issue.

Let's perform a power drain: 

• With the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer and also unplug the power cord from the wall outlet.
• Remove USB cable, if present.
• Wait for 2-3 minutes, press and hold the power button on your printer for about 30 seconds to remove any additional charge.
• Now plug back the power cable straight to a wall outlet without any surge protector or an extension cord (This is important) and then plug back the power cord to the printer.
• Turn on the printer and wait till warm-up period finishes and the printer is idle

Update the printer firmware 

• Click here to download and install the latest printer firmware from your product
• Click here to know different methods of updating printer firmware.

If the issue persists, then please follow the below steps:

Solution one: Turn off Manual Feed mode

Follow these steps to make sure that Manual Feed mode is Off.

Press the Power button () to turn on the product, if it is not already on.

Open the Printers window on your Mac device and guide your way through the below steps

Printing Preferences.

Paper/Quality tab, click Auto Select from the Source is drop-down list, click Apply, and then click OK.

   NOTE:

Do not select Manual Feed from the drop-down list.

Try the print job again.

If these steps resolved the issue, you do not need to continue troubleshooting.

If the issue persists, see the next solution.

Solution two: Reload the paper (Skip to this, if you can't find the above)

Follow these steps to reload the paper. These steps cover both the priority input tray and the main input tray.

Remove all the paper from the tray.

Slide the paper guides to their outermost position.

Figure : Slide out the paper guides

1. 

If you are loading the main input tray, tap the edges of the stack of paper on a flat surface to align the edges.

Load the paper into the tray with the top forward and the print side facing up.

Slide the paper guides inward until they rest snugly at the edges of the stack.

   NOTE:

If the paper guides are too tight, the paper might be held in the tray and not allowed to feed into the product.

Figure : Slide the paper guides against the paper

1. 

Try the print job again.

If these steps resolved the issue, you do not need to continue troubleshooting.

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

Please click “Accepted Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. Click the “Kudos/Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!