I know nothing about an Avante, but bought my Gammill Classic Plus when it was 6 years old and had been heavily used by a professional quilter. She (and her DH) did excellent maintenance on it. I've had a couple of things that required a call to tech support for what eventually we figured out was the electronic board that was causing problems--but I was able to replace and cost less than $50. I would do like JustABitCrazy suggested and contact an Avante dealer and see what they have to say.