Processing issues causing artifact?

This is kind of complicated and unusual, so I’ll do my best to explain. We are a small lab in a GI clinic. Our biopsies are exclusively GI (esophagus, stomach, colon, etc.) and are usually 1-3mm in size. For YEARS, we have had the same process for everything. We use a microwave processor (EBSciences’ LabPulse 2850.) Fixation run with GTF from StatLab for the 10min at 55c, dehydration with 100% reagent alcohol for 5min at 67c, clearing with the 100% Isopropyl for 3min at 74c, paraffin infiltration for 5min at 74c then again for 3min at 82c. We did NOT use agitation (idk why this was how it was when I started) and no vacuum (processor isn’t set up for it.) Two weeks ago, we noticed that the tissues were so dry and crunchy. The pathologist started noticing an artifact as well. We narrowed down the issue to the processing step. I figured it was overdehydrating, so I messed with it a bit and added agitation. That fixed it and tissues were much better. Nothing changed, then yesterday, tissues went back to being crunchy and brittle with the added issue of tissue falling off slides regardless of using charged slides, increased baking time, etc. I tried changing the power output from 80% to 70%, cutting the times down by a minute on each step, reducing the heat on the alcohols, changing every single reagent, including paraffin, every run, and nothing is helping. I’m at a complete loss. The service company states that it is working completely fine and nothing is wrong with it. So I need some insight or advice on what else to try to troubleshoot. The service tech pretty much thinks I’m nuts and isn’t helping. I attached pictures of some of the different tissues that have artifacts as well as a ‘hazy’ appearance. Hopefully someone more experienced than me has a better idea than I do.