Imagewriter won't stay SELECTed

[Linards Ticmanis <ticmanis@gmx.de>]

Hello,

I just got the old Imagewriter (Apple Dot Matrix Printer) out again 
after about 2 years in the closet. It's the original Imagewriter, not 
the Imagewriter II. It worked at first (I printed about two lines for 
testing), but after I flipped some DIP switches to select the German 
font, it broke down, it seems.

The SELECT light refuses to stay on. When I push the SELECT button, the 
LED will flash on for a very short moment then go away again. The 
printer doesn't accept characters, PR#1 will lock up the computer until 
I power down the printer.

The inability to SELECT happens independently of whether the printer is 
connected to anything or not. There is no blinking light, and the FORM 
FEED and LINE FEED buttons are working correctly. The print head moves 
to the left edge correctly during power-up.

I haven't even been able to get a self test printout. I don't have a 
manual, but I suspect holding down some button during power-up should 
produce a self-test. I tried holding down every conceivable combination 
of buttons during power up. I noticed that if I hold down LINE FEED, 
there's no self test but at least the SELECT button does work normally, 
toggling the LED on and off - but only until I release LINE FEED, then 
it's back to "normal" (or rather not normal - see above). The printer 
seems to be accepting characters while LINE FEED is held down and it is 
SELECTed, as the computer doesn't lock up when I say PR#1 and the type 
stuff - but nothing gets printed. FORM FEED doesn't show this effect.

I tried setting the DIP switches back to their previous setting, then 
back to their factory setting, for no avail. Of course I also switched 
the printer off and on a couple of times, still no improvement.

Am I doing something wrong, is this thing gone for good, or is this a 
known, fixable problem?

Any help highly appreciated.

Thanks,
--
Linards Ticmanis