You’re not alone!!

I’m pretty sure it’s par for the course here .

100% all the time - drives me crazy whenever the smallest thing is not working correctly or something is out of place.

Your not alone I can’t sleep at night if one switch isn’t working in one of my 14/15 pins lol. That a lot of perfection!

I used to be much worse, I'd go to sleep at night researching the problem and obsessively troubleshoot it in my head, and couldn't relax because "there's a problem with a pinball and it isn't fixed yet!!"

But I've learned to take it a bit easier. There's always going to be something wrong somewhere, and it will get fixed. Either I'll figure it out, or Pinside/internet research will, or someone coming over will, or last resort, I'll hire someone.

That said, I could rattle off everything that's broken or needs adjusting with all 50 of my current lineup without taking a breath.

Same here, even if a 44 lamp is just flickering because of a dirty contact I have to immediately pull the glass and correct it.

I’m totally new to pinball ownership but literally had my glass off today because one of my lights wasn’t seated properly and had a slight flicker. I couldn’t play a game til I fixed it

Yup exactly. Had to remove my drop targets and reflow solder on my SW premium today. Occasionally would get a machine gun effect. Now all fixed. Come to find out lovely Stern forgot to solder 2 of the 3 contacts. Go figure.

And yes. I keep all my games tip top. It’s totally an OCD thing.

I just showed every post in this thread to my wife so she’s knows it’s not just me.

Yep me too. Glad I only have room for 7 pins in my lineup.

That everything works right is for me a given. Where I am less sure sometimes is if I should fix things which a previous owner „fixed“, but actually work all right. A few of my games have some ugly but functioning wiring solutions which I have decided to leave as is for the time being. If it ain‘t broke...

Not alone and I even measured the gaps between machines.
Any issue at all and I just cannot enjoy the game as it’s in my head!

Wow, you guys are kinda exaughsting me just reading this lol. I fix shit if it affects playability or causes unfair drains, interrupts gameplay, etc. I used to care a bit more, these days I just want a quick few games and don’t have time to mess with stuff if it’s still playing good.

My shadow upper pf paddle machine guns some times when the ball goes up. It’s annoying. I’ve messed with it a lot and finally gave up as it’s intermittent.. upper still works it’s just annoying. Not worth more hours to me.

Walked by our shadow in the bar and saw two ring lights out. So they must be changed. I’ve got spares.

Open it up and pull the ring light bases out and the bulbs are missing.

So, not only MUST I FIX THE BULBS RIGHT NOW. I am now MUST FIND THOSE little BULBS

I have been in the hobby over 50 years and you learn to let it go a little over time. I can play a game with small problem and enjoy myself. But...I also enjoy opening a game up and getting to the problem. My advice...relax and enjoy this wonderful hobby both the repair and playing side. Just my 2 cent.

Sticky drop targets drive me nuts sometimes!! When i do a loop around the PF and the switches don't trigger, argh!

Damn thinking I was the only one with this issue in life . Feel much better now we have Group of fucked up people )

Pinball = nerd = old bastards = extremely OCD

Lol I had to do the same when I owned WD years ago. Did my head in not being aligned and synced.

But then I’m guilty of playing chromed armour games like this, so I don’t have to clean them after. I tell my wife it’s to stop my fingers sticking to flipper buttons. Yes dear that really is the reason!!!

OCD.......don’t know what you mean

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Now I wouldn’t be able to sleep not knowing. It was bad enough when upper flipper topper disappeared off BKLE. It had turned itself sideways and restuck to upper loop area. Could not see it to save my life. Invented new swear words, invented new positions to get myself into trying to find it. Wife comes out.......I’d been going an hour and she finds it in 2 minutes. Don’t get me started on being a blind OCD old fat bastard. Lol Geez I love pinball.

You're not alone.... sigh, I recognize that feeling...

That’s the reason why a went from 42 pins to 3.

You’ll never see a credit dot on one of my games…love to fix them when they do have issues.

If anything electronically is messed up I must fix it immediately. Also any mechanical issues. I just can’t leave it. Same goes for the vehicles. If it is more cosmetic that will get dealt with too but sometimes that may take more time and I can temporarily live with that for a bit as long as the game is 100% functional.

I also keep a pair of white cotton gloves in each pin’s coin box. This way, anytime I’m working on that particular pin I can put the gloves on and minimize finger prints. Since I buy them in bulk from Amazon for cheap, when they get dirty I just throw them away and replace them.

Drives me crazy too. It’s a curse, isn’t it?

This is me too. A credit dot must be fixed immediately. I don’t worry too much about a bulb out or something. I’ll fix that next time I’m in the game. But a credit dot drives me nuts. Almost like the game is calling me a neglectful parent.

It’s annoying that when you disable the claw on DM that it brings up a credit dot. Makes no sense.

In my view, the main reason that you purchase a pinball machine is so that you can fix everything on the machine that is not working, so that it functions 100%. Locations near me that have pinball machines had a machine or two with no rubber on the flippers and the tip broken on one flipper bat because the rubber was missing for so long. I don't have to play machines like that because I can make my own machine work perfectly. I called the people that owned the neglected machines and asked if they wanted to sell them. I was told that they "go over" the machines once a week and that they don't sell machines on a route. I just giggled and told them that they looked pretty neglected to me. I did not suggest that they might make more money if the machines worked properly, because obviously, they are not really too concerned about that.

Im in the club...whats worse is when I cant fix something and have to wait for help...Stressful.

It even bothers me playing Williams Pinball on my phone and they have credit dots on some of their machines. Drives me nuts.

Yep. The very reason I don't play any games an hour before bedtime. I'll either be up too late fixing or won't be able to fall asleep thinking about owning a game with an unresponsive switch, etc.

I've found I cant keep 25 games running perfectly all the time, so the electronic things soemtimes have to wait. Bulbs etc get fixed right away.

I remember what a great feeling it was to have a dozen games or so with no credit dots!

My AFM has the Bill Ung saucer mod. I had 1 single LED out on one of the saucers in the back. I couldn't turn it back on until that issue was fixed.

Same thing with the saucer on the right ramp closest to the flippers. Two were out due to a broken wire coming loose from the solder joint. Every single pattern they were out. It was like they were taunting me. I even had a guest who is just getting into pinball notice it. That did it for me. It HAD to get fixed before I would play a single game.

My girlfriend and I went to one of the big pinball locations in the country once. After an hour I asked her what she thought. She said it really gave her an understanding of just how good my games play. I tried to explain to her that they can’t keep all these games as nice. She understood and realized she was spoiled back home. 3 games is all I need.

I want everything to play great and to work thats about it.

The guys who spaz out over cosmetic stuff like shooter lane wear , playfield imperfections and dimpling etc crack me up.

Or guys who spend thousands making the game look like a xmas tree with 50 mods and never play it.

I am with you! You fix one thing and then find something else. Everything must be as it was.

I cannot imagine keeping just half those games 100%. I only have 6 and they all need a little something. I just don't have the time to fiddle with these things all day like I did in the past. If I have time, I rather just play a few games then rip one apart for some minor issue.

My Maverick does this on real hard shots...makes me sad.

I can definitely relate; at home and at the Silverball in Delray. But theres always something to be done on TZ.

You are not the only one.

My games are all on 5-ball extra easy. “For the grandkids”. My tech guy is always amazed that I didn’t know that much is not working right. By the way, what’s a credit dot? I still love pinball as much as anybody. And I’m world ranked! I got half a Whopper point while several sheets to the wind at one of Andy Rosa’s tournaments—I was actually just there to bowl…and a pinball tournament broke out.

Im so OCD I once got a small scratch on my nib game so I sold it as heavily routed

Really nothing else matters until my pins are playing 100%.

I was closer before I had a kid

Yupp, that’s me, too. I have a friend who never fixes his pins unless they are unplayable and I have to bite my tongue when I’m at his place.

Yea, I'm definitely OCD. Pretty much about everything. If the issue affects gameplay I have to fix it right then or I can't play it. It pisses me off too much. If it doesn't affect gameplay I have my order/to do list so I can repair it and not forget about it. My list is never competed. LOL!!

I'm the same way, but it's only a problem when I have guests and I'm trying to fix stuff when I should be having fun!

I noticed a slightly dirty white rubber post when I was playing today. I tried my best to ignore it, but I just couldn't.

Needless to say, I didn't finish the game.