BEWARE THE SPONGE!!!

Inkjets waste tons of ink into a sponge-diaper with every cleaning cycle, that over time gets saturated and become prone to leaks. You DO NOT want ink from it spilling all over wherever you put it.

Other than that, it’s hard to tell. If you can get the nozzles clean, and it doesn’t have software/firmware issues, a general disassembly, cleaning, and assembly, can bring a printer back to life. It usually takes an amount of time and effort that makes it not worth it… but if you have more spare time than change, it might be worth a shot.

If you need a printer now, I’d just make the best of it while saving for a good laser printer. The vertical alignment may be able to be fixed with a calibration (check the manual to see if there’s a procedure). Not sure about the jams, but usually a good cleaning will fix that.

Ink-jet printers are money pits. Laser printers are superior in just about every way. They cost a little more upfront, but the long-term costs are much, much less than any inkjet. If you only need black and white, you can get a decent laser printer for $100-150. I bought mine in 2014, use it infrequently, and am still on the toner that came with it. Paid $100 for it, and it’s printed every time I’ve needed it for over a decade and going.

If you need to print color (or photos), color lasers are a bit more expensive but not by much (maybe double the cost of a B&W one). Honestly, though, unless you print pictures all the time, it’s cheaper and easier to just take them somewhere to be printed (or use an online service and have the prints mailed to you).

I would tinker for a bit but definitely not spend any more money on it as it’s not worth the money. Where im from you can often find cheap B&W laser printers on facebook marketplace or another second-hand platform for free or for very cheap.

Laser printers will be much cheaper in the long run so I strongly recommend one. Unfortunately a good colour one is very expensive but old B&W ones like the Brother HL2130 are still great.

Facebook marketplace does suck but sometimes it’s the only/best option, still steals your info tho

It’s rarely worth fixing an inkjet. There’s a host of issues that could be in play, but if shit is out of register and paper isn’t feeding in an environment of reasonable humidity, this is going to be more expensive than just getting a new one. Sadly, this is the state of our economy.

What I will suggest, whether you go laser or inkjet, is Brother. They’ve not yet, to my knowledge, instituted chip limitations and other such lock-in crap. Granted, this was before the pandemic, but I was able to get five-packs (CMYKK) of third-party ink for $10, and toner for the laser good for 3,000 pages at 5% coverage for $30.

If you have the spare time, it’s worth a shot. I’ve repaired countless electronics over the years just by disassembly, careful cleaning, and reassembly.

I definitely wouldn’t start throwing parts at an inkjet tho; they were made to be disposable loss leaders whose purpose was to sell ink.