What causes blotchy printing on a dye-sub (ribbon) printer

I just bought a DNP DS40 dye-sub (dye sublimation) printer on eBay for a little side project. I mainly was testing to see if my corners would fit on the print and noticed the left side printed very blotchy. About 2/3rds of the left side doesn’t print solid. I’ve cleaned the print head with alcohol and the results didn’t change.

Next I jiggled the print thinking it’s not making full contact and my results did greatly improve. Now only the left 1/3rd is slightly blotchy. I attached a photo of the first version.