ATT 479 Printer--Fix or Toss?

[John C Slimick]

Last Friday our AT&T 479 tied itself into knots, 
well, more precisely, kept jamming the print head.
Sometimes it whizzes at high speed and jams on the
left side, and other times it jams on the right side.
Error indications are "JAM", "LINK", and "1000"
in the control display. Furthermore, it has taken
to smearing the paper at almost all printhead
settings (except the one past "6"--then it does not print
at all).

Given that this is an inexpensive printer to begin with,
and that we got 1.5 years of light-to-medium service,
is this printer worth fixing? Or should we replace it with
an inexpensive (but probably more reliable) Panasonic 1124?

Send email to:
slimick at unix.cis.pitt.edu
john slimick
university of pittsburgh at bradford
bradford PA