PIXMA MX922 printer not printing black

[traciflome]

My pixma MX922 is not printing black text.  It will print color.  I have changed my ink, cleaned it and shut it on and off.  Thoughts?

[BeFreeTech]

I have a black printing problem too but when I copy a page using the internal copy feature, black prints fine and the printer produces a perfect copy with black and all.  It just won't print black when a page is printed from the computer.  I wonder how many of you have tried a standard copy to see if that works.  Maybe this problem is unique - or maybe not.

My guess would be a electronic board problem that relates to or follows the interface board.  Interface seems ok since the printer is recognized and prints but just won't print black.

My two cents.

[Russ]

BeFree Tech,

I'm glad to hear you can at least copy and get black to print, but my Pixma MP830 won't even do that.  If I try to copy a black & white page, all I get is a blank page.  If I try to copy a page that includes color, the colors print but the black areas do not.

Russ

[Michael]

Hello.

If you continue to have difficulties after cleanings have been performed, additional troubleshooting will be needed.  Please contact our support group using the "Contact Us" link below for additional assistance.

This didn't answer your question or issue? Find more help at Contact Us.

[amenchaca11]

I had this same problem.

The pigment black does not work.

In the global printer setting, I set the print quality to High.

This bypassed the pigment black and now uses the dye black for all black printing.

It has worked for me for quite some time now.

[Russ]

Michael,

Thanks for your reply.  You probably didn't see an earlier post of mine in this thread where I said I had contacted Canon support and they said they no longer support my machine, the Pixma MP830.  It's too bad because I really like the machine, but if it can't print black, it's not of much use.

amenchaca11,

I have the MP830, which apparently does not have the setting you mention.  (I know you have the MX922.)  I couldn't find any other setting similar to what you mentioned on my machine.

Russ

[amenchaca11]

Russ,

Checking again, the setting I changed was to change the paper setting to High Resolution Paper.

Go to your Printer Properties. In the General tab, there is a Preferences button.

Open Preferences and change Media Type to High Resolution Paper.

That is a global setting.

Alternatively, on a project by project basis, when you want to print something, ctrl P opens up the print command.

Click on the Properties button and change Media Type to High Resolution Paper.

This change to High Resolution Paper has worked for me to bypass the pigment black.

[Russ]

amenchaca11,

Wow, it works!  I've been struggling with this for several years and you're the only person who has come up with a solution.  I can't thank you enough.  The test I ran was printing a document from the computer.

To get it to work for making a photocopy, I had to do something similar on the printer itself.  I pushed the Settings button, which gives you choices for "Media Type" and "Print Quality."  I discovered that you have to set the Media Type to anything other than the "Plain paper" default (the choices are several types of "photo" paper).  However, there's no need to change the Print Quality from "Standard" (the other choice is "High," but Standard works fine).

I notice that you talk about the "pigment black" and the "dye black."  What made you realize that High Resolution Paper was the key to bypassing the pigment black?  Was it a matter of trial and error, or did you know that the High Resolution Paper setting was likely to solve this?

Russ

[amenchaca11]

Russ,

I wanted to bypass the pigment black, so I picked a setting that I figured did not use that ink and it worked.

[Russ]

amenchaca11,

You're a good detective.

The only thing left to try to solve on my machine is faxing.  The confirmation page that prints out after you send a fax prints out blank, of couirse.  So you don't know for sure if your fax went through.  Unfortunately, there are no choices under Media Type for the Fax function--the only one is "Plain paper." 

And of course you can't receive faxes since what you receive would print out blank.

From what I hear, there are several free services where you can send and receive faxes via email.  That may be a good alternative.

Russ

[SandraK]

Wow, you are somewhat of a genius to have figured this out. Canon tech support obviously couldn't. My printer is the Canon iX6820. Your solution works, but it's just a work-around, it's not a fix. Canon, how about a fix for this? I have two new black cartridges that cost me what, maybe $30, that I'll have to throw in the trash unless you can tell me how to fix it. 

And another gripe, Canon, why can't you make all your printers to use the same cartridges? Every time I buy a new printer, I have to throw away from $100 to $150 worth of cartridges because I can't find a new printer that uses what I have.

Maybe I won't buy a Canon next time..... or are they all like that. I'll have to check that out.

Anyhow, amenchaca11, thank you so much for figuring this out and for sharing on this forum.

Sandra