PIXMA iX6820 will print in color but not in standard black and white, nor on plain paper

[Dustinq]

Hello, I've been having issues with my printer that I've been able to work around for a long time, but I figured that I should finally come down to the bottom of it. I've had my pixma iX6820 for about 5 years now and its only ever printed if I select the colour mode, or if I set the paper to at least 'photo matte paper'. It won't work if I select 'plain paper' or select to print in black and white. I print from my computer and from my phone and its the same issue. I've come to realize that my printer does not use the larger PGBK cartridge at all for its printing which is the cartridge responsible for printing simple black and white documents on plain paper. When I run my nozzle tests, the PGBK is nowhere to be found. I've tried to clean the nozzle head from the computer and also clean it manually- when I've cleaned it from the computer, I can see that the ink tank display window indicates that the PGBK level is going down, so I know that my computer at least detects the PGBK. When I cleaned it manually, I could see the ink flowing from the nozzle head into my tissue, showing that the ink was flowing fine. My guess would be that its a driver issue, but I've already updated to the latest version. I'd really like to fix this issue so that I can make use of these PGBK cartridges, because as it is, my printer is eating up the smaller BK cartridges on its own. 

#pixmaix6820 #ix6820 #pixma

[EricH1]

I am having a similiar problem.  If I print using Media Type/Plain Paper it prints fine.  If I set it to Media Type/Photo Papers/   the printer acts like it is printing but the page comes out blank or faint, like the print heads are clogged.

I mainly print film positives for screen printing so I need the heaviest/darkest print possible - that's why I use the Photo Paper settings.

When I do a head cleaning it never really gets back to what it ought to be.  I have taken the head out and tried to clean it by soaking in warm water and really rinsing it out,  that doesn't seem to work either.

Is my printhead worn out?  or is this a firmware problem?  Printer is just over one year old.

Dustin if you see this post call me 317-777-1929

[Dustinq]

Hi Eric,

It seems like you're having the same issue as I have but reversed. Unfortunately I don't have any clue as to why this happens, but its gotta be something wrong with the PGBK and the BK cartridges, whether its a driver problem or a printer problem. I'll let you know if I figure anything else out.