How to correct faded, banded printing

BACKGROUND: I have a Epson Stylus 1400 that I purchase and really used only very occasionally. It was treated with care and kept in a very clean environment. It looks like new. It was printing fine until recently. I had to put it back in it’s original packaging and into storage for about 6 months. I knew it was probably too hot but there was no other place for it. I took it out to make sure it would work and to sell it to someone who could use it. But of course I tested it first. I started by running all of the usual test, calibrations, alignments and head cleanings. My software and drivers are up to date. I’m not using photo paper but simple white printing paper. I’ve tried a variety of settings within the Printer Utility for color management, etc. but nothing made a difference in the printing issues.

ISSUE: The printer head tests show some skipping/gaps so I purchased new inks and flushed the ink heads about a dozen times with solution purchased specifically for cleaning Epson print heads. The test pages are consistently printing somewhat faded colors (which I expected from the dozen or so flushes). But they are also showing consistent ‘banding’; the color is strong then begins to band, then almost goes to blank, then bands and then to a faded solid color again. It does this not just for one or two colors but rather, it does it for all of the colors consistently. To me it seems like it is ‘something’ that interferes with the printing at that point of the page every time. I’m not technically savvy with printer hardware so I’ve run out of ideas. The printer looks like new and is extremely clean. There’s been no accidents or issues that I’m aware of. (It sat in my studio so there’s an off-chance that someone came by and touched it but unlikely).

I’m at my wits end and I would love to get it working, to even just give it to a school or someone who could use it, rather than simply chuck it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.