Cannot print in black only

Hello,
It may be problem in print head or purge unit, bzt first did you try with print head cleaning under printer properties/preferences?Try few times, if not, remove ink crg., remove print head, take lint free clotch and moisture it with destilled water and put the print head on it few minits, then dry it with anoter lint free cloth.Put it back in and repeat the head cleaning and nozzle check.

If not helpfull replace print head and purge unit with absoerber

Try this to unclog printhead.
take out cartridge, locate the hole where ink goes trough, put a can of compressed air and blow it.
put some paper under the printhead to catch ink.

no you cant print with emapty colour catridges you have to install the other full catridges.

The printer use big PGI-5bk cartridge to print documents and text.When you print photos or some other pictures printer use small CLI-8bk cartridge because this cartridge has a photo ink.If you print text and it print blank page that mean the nozzle on PGI-5 cartridge is clogged.Try cleaning test on maintenance menu on printer.

Canon PIXMA MX850 Multi Function Printer Printer Canon MX850 will not print from... Answer Canon MX850 will not print from small Black Ink Cartridge - 8BK. It only uses the large black ink... (More) Canon MX850 will not print from small Black Ink Cartridge - 8BK. It only uses the large black ink cartridge and I have a drawer full of small 8BK cartridges. How can I get it to use the small black cartridge and not the large black cartridge? Thanks

try to clean the nossles with software from the manafactures website

if your document only black and white , the machine only use black ink, no going withdraw the color ink. but you have had to leaved the full color ink in the machine.

The PGBK cartridge is a pigment black ink, while the others use a dye for coloration. The pigment black is used when printing text and other documents. The dye ink is used when printing photos and other colored documents. The dye black is used in conjunction with the color (dye) inks to provide tinting and color gradation, and therefore is not used nearly as much as the pigment black unless you use your printer only for printing photos.

If you're printing text and documents, you will need to buy another pigment black (PGBK) cartridge.

On some printers, probably including yours, the black ink will be taken from the reserves in your colour cartridge unless you specifically tell it to do a black and white print on each document, regardless of whether it's printing black exclusively. I wouldn't worry, the black ink in it's own cartridge can also be used for colour photos etc with no detrimental effects.

The number 5 is a Pigment text black while the number 8 is a dye photo black. The text black is for black text mainly and the photo black is for use when printing photos. Since the text black is always running out it means you are printing a lot of documents in plain paper mode.

I recommend using QUALITY refill ink like Hobbicolors which is sold on eBay and will save you a bundle of money. The MP830 is a 5 ink printer so you need the 5 ink kit like the IP4300.