PIXMA MX 880 printer ink supply level problem, Macintosh

[denalidon]

I have a PIXMA MX880 printer wirelessly connected to an IMAC computer (OSX 10.6.2).  I recently (for the 1st time) installed a refilled cartridge with the rest of the cartridges being original Canon.  I noticed that my Ink Supply Level feature is not working and was told that the Canon cartridges have chips in them that allow this feature to function.  Assuming the 3rd party refil cartridge does not have the chip, but when I put the original (emptied) Canon cartridge back in, it still shows no information for any of the cartridges supply level.  The original chip should still function showing empty?????  Also, is there a way with Mac to disable the supply level feature to bypass it from shutting down the printing and finally, is there a way that I can print black only (without using any color cartridges) as the use of colored ink is excessive.  Thanks in advance.  I use Safari as my browser and print either from the internet or from the Pages app.  

[Michael]

Hello.

We cannot guarantee the functionality of third party or refilled ink tanks.  In order to restore the ink level detection a new, genuine Canon brand tank should be installed.

You would not be able to use the printer with only the black ink installed.  However, using the grayscale setting in the print menu will allow you to print items in black and white.  This should reduce the color ink usage.

If additional assistance is needed, find more help at Contact Us.

[denalidon]

I was told by a Canon Customer Svc rep recently that using "Gray Scale" used a lot of colored ink as well as black (more than normal), so that didn't seem to be a good solution????  .....and as a follow on, if I inserted the empty genuine Canon cartridge back into the printer, the ink supply circuit would still not function.....is that correct?  Seems like the circuit would still be made to show the empty cartridge empty and the other ones partially full??? Thanks for your response. 

[Patrick]

Hi denalidon,

The PIXMA MX882 will use color ink tanks to print colored text. Even if the grayscale option is checked in the printer driver, if the original text is in a color other than black, the PIXMA MX882 will combine the cyan, magenta and yellow ink tanks together to make a composite black. This is why your color ink cartridges are still being used.

To use only the black ink tank, the original text must be black and the paper setting must be set to Plain Paper.

In regards to the black ink tank, once the ink tank is empty, it cannot be reused in the printer, even if it is refilled.  All of the ink tanks must contain ink in order to use the PIXMA MX822.  If an empty ink tank is in the PIXMA MX882, you would not be able to use the PIXMA MX882 until that ink tank is replaced.  This is to prevent damage to the printer.