# Brother GT-541 Banding - Driving me freakin insane



## GICustomApparel (Jun 22, 2016)

This is my first time posting on here, figured I'd give it a shot since countless hours have been spent looking everywhere else.

I've got a Brother GT-541 (I know its ancient) and I'm having issues with Banding.

Its only with the black ink, all other colors are printing fine. I'm printing with the Platen as high as it will go, have cleaned the waste tubes (Cap tests runs fine) and have swapped cartridges. Small images with little black print fine, but larger images start banding after about 5 or 6 lines. 

I'm just not sure what I can try next. I'm wasting tons of ink and money, and its driving me craaaaaaaaaaaaazy.

Thanks!


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

When was the last time you changed that printhead and ink supply tube?

Have you cleaned your ink needle? If the needle is dirty it will cause ink flow issues after some time.


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## GICustomApparel (Jun 22, 2016)

The print head has never been changed... the top lines have been flushed, but not replaced. I haven't checked the ink needle, maybe thats something I need to check out as well.


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

Printheads are "consumable" items, meaning they do need to be replaced over time. It's impossible to say what causes banding because it can be literally any step of the ink flow. That needle is known to cause ink starvation issues, as can a dirty tube. If your printhead is flowing ink initially but then it drops out, chances are it is something before the printhead itself. I'd check the pin.

I'm not sure what a new printhead costs but I'd guess $1000-$1500 per channel. It's important to replace anything that Brother tells you to, don't skip a step.

Try cleaning that needle first.


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## EricDeem (May 7, 2011)

How does a nozzle check look?


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## GICustomApparel (Jun 22, 2016)

Sorry for the late reply... I work 3rd at my FT job..  Thanks for the reply... I don't have the Manage Attachments option at the bottom, so I'll post it like this and see if it works.

[media]http://imageshack.com/a/img923/7452/5ochOL.jpg[/media]


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## Nogginhed (Apr 7, 2015)

Our GT-541 has been sitting unused for a few months. We are having problems with K & Y. I removed and flushed the heads, they look good. The problem may be the ink cartridge needles as the tubes are void of ink. What is the procedure for cleaning the needles? 
Jim


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## raise (Apr 11, 2008)

Last time we had bad banding in the black it was actually at the pump level. There was a small 1/8 inch of dried ink in the black tube that was impeding the inkflow. The pump wasn't strong enough to pull the ink past the narrow opening the clog created.


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