PIXMA MX490 FINE color cartridge disables black ink cartridge

[rmbrewerwv]

Please tell me what I need to do.  I bought my daughter the MX490 to use for school.  Now I find out that since it has a FINE color cartridge the black cartridge will not work when trying to print documents.  On-line and troubleshooting says that if a FINE color cartridge is installed it will only use the color cartridge and disables the black cartridge.

IS there a work around?  IS there such a thing as a regular (Unfine) color cartridge?  I need help on this.  

Thanks

[jrhoffman75 · Accepted solution]

I believe if you select Plain Paper you can use the pigment black ink. 
Stated the other way, you can only use the pigment ink cartridge if you select Plain Paper. 

[rmbrewerwv]

I have tried that a couple of times.  Even changed the print settings from draft to standard to best and tried to print black only.  Still does not work.  I tried with plain paper, which is my default setting, and still no luck.  As I said above trouble shooting said if you are using a FINE color cartridge it will always go to it and not the black only cartridge.  Can I run the printer without the color cartridge?  

Thanks

[jrhoffman75]

[rmbrewerwv]

Thank you so much.  I will try this tonight.  I hope it works as I have tried most everything else I can think of. I was head of an IT department for a banking institution with several locations for 30+ years.  Just think of doing this.

Thanks again  

[marypr2]

I could finally print with black ink when I changed to plain paper.  I  have no idea how it got off of plain paper in the first place.  Just glad I can now print with black.  I guess I used up my color cartridge using that instead of the black.  What a waste.