How does Canon PIXMA MX922 decide which of the 2 containers of black toner to use on any given job?

[vankjeff]

I'm a new user of this MX922. I have a spare large black 24ml toner cartridge that I bought with it originally but in that little box that it pops up with each printing job, it keeps telling me that some toner is running low.

Does it maybe only use the big PGBK B&W toner cartridge when printing with it set on Black & White and if so, is printing a color image with the print properties set to Grayscale the same as B&W so it will also maybe use from the big B&W toner cartridge?

And also, why is it called PGBK on that little pop-up box? Isn't it just a B&W toner cartridge or am I just too dumb.
I'd say I'm dumb. I need help please.

Heck, I have a hard time even figuring out how to ask a new Question every time I come to this site. I've only asked a few over my few months of owing a Canon but why does it seem to be so difficult to find an ASK button?

[Ramona · Accepted solution]

Hi vankjeff,

The PGBK stands for Pigment Black.  The two black ink tanks in the printer serve different purposes and are used for different types of printing.   The PGBK ink tank is used for your document printing when plain paper is selected, you are doing single-sided printing, and your document contains black text.

The smaller BK ink tank is a dye-based ink and is used along with the other color inks when printing photos, performing duplex (double-sided) printing, and when a paper type other than plain paper is selected (i.e., envelopes, labels, photo paper, etc.).  Because the smaller ink tank is not usually used alone, but in combination with the other color ink tanks in the unit, the ink in it may last longer than some of the other colors.

When selecting the grayscale printing mode, the PGBK ink tank in the printer is used to print the black on the page, as long as you have the printer set to print on plain paper and are performing non-duplex (single-sided) printing. 

Hope this helps!  Should you need any other assistance, we ask that you please contact a Canon technical support representative here.  A representative will be happy to assist you free of charge.

[vankjeff]

Thanks. That's all good to know.

Can I assume that PLAIN PAPER & SINGLE-SIDED are set as the defaults or should I go look? On that, does it set back on its own to the defaults after a power down or does a user need to remember to set it back to those if they do alter either of them?
I was initially freeking out that I couldn't find anywhere to click Accept as Solution but I finally figured out that I wasn't logged in anymore even though I'd left Internet Explorer opened to this page and that's how I found your reply this morning.

 

[vankjeff]

Also, I don't see an email anywhere notifying me that you'd replied last night. Shouldn't there be one?
It's not in any spam folder that I can find.

[vankjeff]

I haven't heard back from anyone so I've been trying to figure this out on my own. My first thought was to go into My Settings and change my email address from my outlook.com address to one of my Gmail addresses. But when I went to the page to do that, I see a box below the 2 boxes where it wants my new email address typed in and this box says DON'T SEND ME ANY COMMUNITY EMAILS. I must have checked that a long time ago since I thought it would keep any unwanted newsletters or other junk. Is that being unchecked what was stopping the Reply Notification emails from me?

I checked it for now and I kept my email address still on my only outlook.com email address which is my main one for both my computer's actual Outlook 2013 and my Windows 8 Nokia Lumia 635 phone that it needing to be replaced soon.

I say this even though I do have several Gmail addresses set to be forwarded to my outlook.com address.
Let's give it a try. Can someone please Reply to this?

And maybe while you're Replying, tell me why the heck this site has that little QUICK REPLY thing that treats them differently like it displays them in different places and seems to hide them. What's the point of it anyhow? What does it save anyone?

[vankjeff]

I hate to be so stupid but I need help. Once again, I can't find the button to ASK a new question on this site. I've looked everywhere. I swear that if someone will kindly tell me, I'll make a note of how on my Outlook Contact for this Canon Community page. I'd love it if you could be very spectific including maybe even add a PrintScreen image with an arrow pointing where it is. 🙂

[Jason]

Hi, vankjeff!

We hope someone in the community is able to assist with your printer question! We wanted to mention, this community is designed for your fellow Canon owners to help each other out with any problems they may encounter. If this is a time-sensitive matter, of if you are looking to get support from Canon, please reach out to our US-based technical support team via Email at http://Canon.us/SupportCF

However, we can certainly assist with any questions you have about navigating the forum! The option you found regarding "Don't send me any community emails" option will prevent the community members from sending you any emails. To receive an email notification to a response on your post, just click on the "Subscriptions and Notifications" tab (here's a direct link): https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/user/myprofilepage/tab/user-subscriptions

Once here, click on "Notification Settings" and look under the "Email Notifications" heading to make any adjustments. You can also click on "My Subscriptions" in the same row to see the content you are subscribed to.

The "Quick Reply" option allows you to reply to a message fast if you just need to reply with a text response, without any additional formatting (ex. font sizes, colors, images).

To post a new message, go to the board you want to post on, and click on the red "New Message" located near the top of the message list. For example, this post is found in the "Printer/Multifunction Support" forum (here's a direct link): http://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Printer-Multifunction-Support/bd-p/faxing

You should see the "New Message" option located near the top of the screen, below the larger "Printer/Multifunction Support" heading and next to "Options."

We hope you find this useful!

[oxford2947]

Thank you! All it took was to DESELECT DOUBLE-SIDED printing. I knew I still had toner on my PGBK cartridge so this solution totally worked for me. 🙂 

[vankjeff]

Hi Oxford. I got an email telling me that someone had replied last week, which obviously was you. But it seems as if I'm missing something since you start by saying "Thank you!". Thanks to who for what? I see that you figured something out that I wish you'd describe to me where and how to set on mine but still, it seems like you're responding to someone or something that isn't here. Am I getting this wrong?

Anyway, how & where do I "DE-SELECT DOUBLE-SIDED printing"? I went into the printer properties using Cortana on my computer but I couldn't find the term DOUBLE-SIDED printing anywhere, on any tab. Do I need to use the little stuff on the printer itself to do this?
Can you please help me since I'd like to make notes of this for the future. It hasn't ever been a problem but I'd just thought to ask months ago since these tiny ink cartridges run out so quickly on these printers. I'd been used to a Brother MFC-7820-N that had a HUGE toner cartridge and then somebody talked me into getting this Canon. I've not really been a fan of it. Maybe it will grow on me?

[oxford2947]

Hi vankjeff. I was responding to Ramona the product expert but I suppose you were also included in the email trail.

Anyhow, I had the same problem where I knew that the PGBK toner was still fairly full (when you shake it you feel the weight of the liquid still inside) but my printouts were very gray and not at all useable. Because of Ramona’s response, now it works! The trick was, as she mentioned, to make sure you are not probing double sided. I used to do that to save paper but apparently it will not work when it comes to this printer.

When you print a document, the DOUBLE SIDED OPTION will be one of the options in the pop-up menu. You might have to click on Details or Settings to get to the option of Single Sided or Double Sided. Anyway, once Double Sided was turned OFF, the black document printed. Yay!