officejet 6100 won't print black or megenta

[john-project]

I don't use my printer a lot, maybe once every few weeks. I printed a line drawing a couple weeks ago and it printed okay. I tried printing another similar drawing today. At first the printer did not respond at all, no self test, no anything. The printer complained that the magenta and yellow were depleted, cyan was low, black was okay. I replaced the two depleted cartridges (magenta & yellow) with HP 933XL. I again tried to print my drawing. This time it printed but only in light pale greenish color. I ran a test page, all I got was a couple rectangles with green, blue and yellow, no text. I ran the test for cartridge align and clean to no avail, only green, blue and yellow. I removed and re-inserted the magenta and black cartridges. I unplugged the printer and power supply. I tried printing my drawing again and again, all I got was the same pale light greenish color drawing.

Is there anything else I should try, or is this sucker effectively dead?

[Jay_G24]

Hi @john-project

Welcome to the HP Support Community. 

If you have already performed the steps from the document Troubleshooting Print Quality Issues and the issue persists, it could be a hardware failure.

Please reach out to the HP Support in your region regarding the service options for your printer.

If you are having trouble navigating through the above options, it's most likely because the device is out of warranty. If yes? please send me a private message with the region you are contacting us from. Check next to your profile Name, you should see a little blue envelope, please click on it. 

Hope this helps!

Please click “Accept as 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

[john-project]

Jay_G24,

Sorry but your response is too late, I already limped through a fix that at least got me going. I ended up taking the printer apart so I could get at the self cleaning mechanism. I am amazed at the amount of wasted ink that gets dumped in the cleaner reservoir. Since I couldn't actually get at the print head (not removable without major disassembly) I was dubious whether cleaning the contact parts of the self clean mechanism would help but I figured it could not hurt. While still disassembled, I ran the "clean printheads" process through level 3. The printer finally started working with black and all colors although still not up to full quality. I'll limp by with that until I can get a new printer.

I have to give myself credit for the answer although there doesn't seem to be a way to do that, but hopefully other users with a similar issue can benefit.

[Jay_G24]

That's great! Happy to hear that. If you need further assistance feel free to reach out to us.

Note : HP does not recommend disassembling the printer and this might void the warranty of the printer

Have a great day ahead!