We have had this game for about a year now and it has been generally reliable. Recently the drop targets started acting up and I'm looking for some advice on the best way to troubleshoot. I'm much more familiar with EMs and I'd appreciate some pointers before I go too far in the wrong direction.

This game has individually resetting drop targets (at least for the ones that are acting up). The six targets that can block the ramp all reset "up" and then individually drop down to reset the playfield to the previous state (or for a new game). This has been working properly until recently.

Now, occasionally, after the reset sequence I'm left with all six targets up. It should only ever be the rear three up for a new game, or the front three up if the rear three have been completed out of order. Or whichever were remaining up at the end of the previous turn.

I'm hoping that I can simply clean and gap the switches on the drop target assemblies to restore the proper behavior but if anyone has any other advice I'd appreciate it. I'm hoping this isn't a deeper issue since the targets are still sometimes working properly and they all seem to be capable of resetting themselves, they just aren't doing it 100% of the time.

Thanks.

I know there are settings for the drop target behavior but those haven't been adjusted so whatever is happening has been caused by something acting up... I'm reading through the manual and yes, the switch and solenoid tests seem useful.

Thanks for the lead. Will that bulb be lit during operation or game on? Can I visually check it or just swap in a known good one?

Wiggling the bulb in that expander board seemed to cause its relay to behave erratically. I cleaned up the legs on the bulb and it seems happier. Time will tell if that actually fixed it.

I also reworked the post near the upper bank of drops near the ramp. The playfield was stripped out so I drilled completely through it and used a #6 machine screw and nut to tighten it up. I also replaced the single rubber band across two posts with two individual rubbers. I see some set up that way in the gallery and it eliminates the slight interference between the right-most drop target and the rubber band. I also noticed that some games have smaller diameter posts in this area which would also probably help. I don't know what the original configuration would have been but I'm going to try this out for awhile. I also don't know whether that rubber band interference had anything to do with the erratic drop target behavior but it seemed like a worthwhile fix either way. I did have to grind the coil stop bracket slightly to clear the machine nut.

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Several games later this seems to be resolved. Thanks for the help.