I have a Bride of Pinbot game which I've had for over 10 years. I've maintained it and replaced parts when they go bad, including soldering a new IC chip for the score display board. This latest problem confuses me though. I should preface it by saying I've ran the diagnostics on all the switches, and they all appear to be working correctly.

That being said, commonly during a game, the machine will just consider the ball to be "over". For example, it could just be bouncing around in the bumpers or off the flippers and it will make the sound like the ball had exited the game (not sure which "ending" it considers to be). It will just tally up the bonuses for that player and switch to the next player (while the ball might still be in play). In fact, it doesn't even launch a new ball, just keeps playing the existing one. Like I said, I tested all the outball switch locations several times and didn't see any issues. Does anyone have any advice for where to go from here?

Thanks both of you - it's a good idea to put it in switch test and pound on the playfield to see if a short is intermittent. As far as the switch wired wrong, it's been working for more than 10 years, and is only a recent development, so it has to be a short or something similar. I'll check it out. Thanks for the advice.

I will try the switch test in multiple scenarios to see if we can figure it out. I'll post here when I have that done - other real life things taking precedent... Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

Ok, so I tried doing all the various switch edge tests - took out the balls, threw them around the playfield, pounded on the playfield, etc. Not a single time did any of the outholes indicate closed. I took one of the balls out, and still nothing. What else can I do to troubleshoot? I'm starting to think it's something wrong with one of the Chips. Any ideas? Your help is appreciated!

No other suggestions? Come on experts!

Thank you Prock, that gives me something else to go on; I didn't realize how the switch matrix worked; I've got some troubleshooting to do...

In the course of doing this, I discovered the problem. The Ball Shooter Lane Feeder isn't retracting fully after kicking the ball into the shooting lane, so the remaining two balls aren't moving into the right position. So here's the new question:

The coil is causing the coil plunger to pull down; it's just not releasing completely back up all the time. Do I need to replace everything or just get a new spring? Or is there something I can oil to get it moving more freely? According to the manual, it's a "C-9638 Ball Shooter Lane Feeder" assembly. I just don't know enough about the coils to know if they should return to the start on their own easily, or if that's a spring's job... Please help

So basically take the plunger out of the coil and clean it with isopropyl alcohol? I'll have to look up a diagram of the sleeve, plunger and coil to understand before I do it. This is a new area for me. Thanks.