Digital BW, The Print

Hello,
         I am using a 1280, a cis from nomorecarts.com, and Paul's 
VM HEX inks and curves, 99% of the time I use the neutral curve.  
Everything was working fine for months until a few days ago I 
noticed horizontal stripes in my prints.  I think this is banding, but 
I am not sure if this is the proper term for what I am seeing.  
Anyway, I ran an alignment check and found that I needed to 
make some adjustments.  I then ran a nozzle check and found 
that I needed to have the heads cleaned, which I did, several 
times, but no improvement.  What I am seeing is that of the six 
groups of diagonal lines, "#5", or 5th from the left is always 
incomplete in the same way.  I have run the head cleaning cycle 
many times both through the software and manually with the 
button on the front of the printer.  I have also waited overnight a 
couple of times as it says to do in the printer user manual.  The 
quality of my prints has improved since I first noticed the 
problem, and I figure that is the result of the re-alignment, but 
there is still some very faint horizontal lines in my prints.  Has 
this happened to anybody else?  Is there a remedy?  I would 
graetly appreciate any input any of you might have on this matter.
Thanks in advance,
Justin Smith