OK, all fairly new to Pinballs and bringing them back to life. First pinball was a Dealers choice electrical mechanical machine; its now alive and well, primarily thanks to help of others on Pinside, Thanks again!!!. Presently working on a Bally Strange Science machine; its #2 machine. Starting to get the hang of the solid state machines, but still have more questions than answers. Started with the old dead battery problem and a machine that lost its setup. Seemed to have cleared that hurdle. Been through all basic and feature settings they all have a valid entry. Did not got through every setup value, but did perform a factory reset. Hoping all other settings are valid; is this a good assumption? Did run self test on all playfield switches and solenoids, all seem to function as intended. The machine now retains settings and starts but has a few quirky things going on, that have me stumped.... When you activate the left slingshot switches, 9 of 10 tries the middle thumper solenoid energizes?? On roughly 1 of 10 tries the left sling shot solenoid will energize, briefly. Been through the schematics don't see any obvious common factor or relationship between the two solenoids that might cause the middle thumper to energize when the left slingshot switch is made. While trouble shooting the left sling shot I heard another solenoid energizing roughly every 30 seconds. Traced it to be the open atom smasher solenoid. Had not noticed this cycling before, but might not notice during game play there is a lot going on in this game while playing. Anyone ever see either of these issues before or have an idea what needs to be checked to figure these issues out ??? Greatly Appreciate any suggestions!!!! Thanks

Agree that simple solutions can be and are often overlooked. Nothing better than to fix something and be able to hit the Easy button!!! Understand and agree with your comments about vibration from one component affecting another. When it was said the middle thumper comes on when when the slingshot switch was activated, we meant only the thumper solenoid is energized. It is rare that the left slingshot solenoid is ever energized, just don't think its the source of the issue. Will try thumping on the play field to confirm. If thumping on the play field doesn't cause the middle thumper to energize, any other ideas or suggestions ?? Greatly appreciate any and all ideas, Thanks for the feedback !!!!

Thumping om playfield does not cause the thumper to activate. Still looking for solutions...

Don't know if I said this before, I've only owned this bally Strange Science pin for a few weeks, picked it up for a couple hundred dollars. This machine could have been doing this for weeks or years no way to know........ Thinking I got really lucky, there are NO signs of corrosion, all boards are very clean...... Agree with your thoughts on how it passes diagnostics just fine, but does not work correctly during game play. Have been reading up switching matrix and how shorted or grounded playfield parts can cause wonky things to happen. May dig into that method of trouble shooting, if I can get it figured out. Whomever worked n this game in the past was far from a craftsman that took much if any pride in their work... Might be they installed a few problems that I've yet to find.

watout44, btw I grew up in Bowling Green OH, noticed your also from OH....

Thanks !!