Really excited to have joined the club. I have been reading and following this group for a long time and I haven’t paid much attention to the repair posts much. I do have a couple small issues I hope someone can shed some light on.

#1. Sometimes when I shoot a ball in the cellar the coil fires and fires but the ball won’t come out. After a few minutes it gives an operator alert saying device malfunction / cellar lockup error. The game just sits there and I have to power off and mess around to eventually get the ball out. What’s going on here? I can’t really see anything as it’s all covered by the mansion.

#2. A hard direct hit on the drop target results in it binding and not going down. A bank shot never does it but a direct shot does it often. Suggestions?

I have only played a few games so far and I am very impressed with the code and gameplay. Seems like this is going to be a lot of fun once I get these minor items fixed up.

I was just about to post this same question. I've had the same thing with the garage target on mine. Sometimes a hard dead on shot won't drop it, but any other shot will. Even a softer dead on shot. I also had it be in the up position once during Gappa Angry when trying to shoot the garage lock. I searched the forum and didn't find anything on it, but I haven't taken the time yet to look into the target itself on the machine.

2 weeks in to being in the EHoH club now. Just wanted to share a few insights and troubleshooting updates:

1. LOVE THIS GAME. So fun, hilarious, and deep with smooth, easy shots. But it is a bit drain-y if you miss a shot with some hungry outlanes. Getting better at it all the time though. I settled at 6.7 degree pitch and it seems more fun to me than at 7.0 like I had previously.

2. I had a bad house ramp reject issue out of the box. The one where it comes right back down the front ramp to start a haunt(diverter up.) It’s weird that recent runs seems to have the problem more than previous builds? Maybe I’m wrong about that though. The velcro in the subway is a good fix but you really have to find the right amount of velcro/padding to soften and deaden the ball on entry. Also, I’ve found that you only want the velcro to be covering the left most part of the plastic subway right where the ball enters. It seems to want only plastic and no velcro anywhere as it travels down near the opto and post to the right. I was getting rejects from having velcro continuing an inch or so down that pathway to the right. I finally found the sweet spot of about 3 layers of velcro right in that leftmost entrance spot. Works well now keeping the ball inside from both a right or left flipper shot to the house ramp to start a haunt. It surprises me that Stern engineering didn’t pad this subway entrance as it seems like a really common issue on recent builds.

3. Interesting ball hang up happens sometimes on the garage drop target. When the target is down, a slow rolling ball up there hangs up on the rectangular hole where the target has dropped. Never experienced that before on a drop. Doesn’t happen often enough for me to stress about it(unlike my JJP GnR pop bumper ball hang up!)

4. Working with Stern to try and troubleshoot the fact that when my coin door is open 48v does NOT disable. messed with the interlock plug to no avail. No way to disable high power on the game. Troubling for obvious reasons(electric shock) as well as a bit frustrating if in gameplay I get a ball hang up(I can’t take off the glass, put the ball in the shooter lane without it auto launching.). Might be a bad power node board.

It’s such a great game when dialed in and working. It seems like the 48v coin door issue is the last thing I need to sort out before I’m 100% with it.

Mine was built Nov 2019, I have had very few rejects from the house in over 1500 games a soft shot or even a bullet shot stays in. I also have a friend with same build date and his is solid too. Really got to wonder what changed..

I don’t think anything has changed - mine is one of the May 2021 builds and I don’t have a problem with rejects. I did have 2 gargoyles come off in the first 20 plays, but a little JB Weld up their butts solved that issue.

yeah, it seems like there are different issues with recent games. But there seem to be trends. Some people have the house ramp reject thing, others the gargoyle thing, some with power node issues(my game), etc. Stern seems pretty good about responding to this stuff. Although it seems like nothing from them about the house ramp thing. Elvira seems to be a more complicated one to set up right vs my other sterns. Great game though.

During multiball had an airball get stuck between the dripping blood and the apron. Not a big deal just thought it was kinda funny.BEA262D8-E9CC-4BC7-B7D4-B8998E5C6D83 (resized).jpeg

On a side note, apart from all the white ghosts, the AMH topper would almost work for Elvira.

880A8D27-9BE5-4EBF-862C-5F60C6AB8023 (resized).jpeg

Might be a playfield angle thing. Steeper angles will increase rejects.

Jesus christ is this game good

man, that gives me strong Haunted House vibes...

Finally joined the club last week. Only have about 5 games in but loving it.

So far only one issue found.

Anytime the game auto kicks the ball out of the cellar (raises the house stairs) the ball goes straight down the middle with no chance of a save. On everyone else's game where does the ball usually hit when coming out of the cellar?

Also, when new out of the box, do you have do anything to the Gargoyles like cut zip ties off underneath the playfield?

Yea - gargoyles are zip tied with foam underneath the PF.

Check your level side to side and make sure you are at 0. My kick out hits the right flipper (barely).

yup kick out is at the right flipper.

Mine shoots out and hits my right flipper. I've never had SDTM drains out of the cellar fortunately... I had many other issues out of the box, though.

Mine was kicking the ball out of the cellar into the right slings. I was able to remove the house and loosen the Scoop and get it to hit the center of the right flipper. Didn’t move much, maybe a couple mm but enough to solve the issue. May want to check level first then go through taking house off to get to the scoop.

My game has a build date of May 15th if anyone was curious.

Mine did this because the scoop was loose. Once tightened it was good. If yours is tight, you could probably loosen it and turn it slightly to fire to the right more. The video shows how much wiggle room there is.

Rob

Wow, nice!

Welp looks like mine is not immune to the others with the house reject issues. Played about 20 more games (still haven't taken the house off) and now the house will not hold the ball when starting a mode.

So appears the consensus is to just put some velcro in to deaden the ball?

Is the ball getting rejected or is it just going to the pops when the mode starts?

The ball comes back down the ramp. Playfield is dark and Elivra is talking.

Hey guys, I'm having 2 issues with my new game:

1. When the crate opens and I hit the left ramp, the ball drops in and gets immediately kicked out. No matter how many times I get it in there, it doesn't seem to be counting toward anything. It knows when it gets there since it kicks it out, but I never get a mode/multiball or whatever is supposed to happen.

2. Whenever I start the mode that requires hitting the ramps (Tiki bar or something) the score starts racking up constantly without hitting anything. It seems as though a switch is stuck/registering, but it doesn't do anything out of the ordinary during normal play. I also went into the switch test and there aren't any switches that show as repeatedly registering.

Any thoughts on how to address either of these issues?

I had the same issue out of the box(purchased 3 weeks ago) and it seems like the right ramp opto is usually the culprit(it’s by the right side of the crypt on the ramp.) I wasn’t getting error messages in test mode either. I just played around with the opto alignment and haven’t had a single problem with it since.

Not sure about your first issue, sorry.

The velcro really seemed to work for me. I had exactly the same issue(right back down the house ramp reject.) I found that placing enough fuzzy side velcro(for me it was 3 layers) only around that left most side where the ball enters the subway was the right amount. I also added a single layer of velcro (about an inch of it) to the right of the 3 layer spot. Sort of softly leading the ball down the subway to the right. With my game level side to side it now works well and consistently. It is weird that recent builds seem to have this issue more than previous builds.

Sounds like code issue, what version of the code are you running?

I would just flash the card with the CARD IMAGE of the code and not the code update. Never had success with updating the code with a USB key, flashing the card with the card image makes sure that the code is 100% to what it should be and prevents weird bugs.

For flashing a card with the image, you will need a different file than for 'updating', so make sure you are downloading the file from the right page on Stern website, people get confused with this and download the wrong file.

There instructions on how to create a card image, are there.

You can get instruction on how to flash the code here:

https://sternpinball.com/support/sd-cards/

I put in a ticket with Stern and they sent me a new light board, unfortuantely it did not fix the issue. I still have the Phase 3 light ghosting. I checked all the connectors and everything seems fine, just cant get the ghosting on the light to stop.

Thanks
Ed

Light Ghosting (resized).jpg

How did you get them to send you a new light board? I’ve had one insert permanently out since I unboxed, and kind of got pushed off, and never got anything sent. What’s the trick ?

insert pushed off? sounds like defective PF and should be replaced. Contact your distributor and CC Stern customer service with photos of the issue, also mention you have already contacted them before and never heard back.

Stern customer service is having issues as of recently...

I went through my distributor, Zach at FlipNOut...he has been great to deal with and gets responses from Stern very quickly. Unfortunately I have had several issues where Stern had to send a new lockdown bar, new Node board and new light board and Zach had them shipped to me within a few days.

A good distributor is critical when you have issues!

I meant Stern kind of gave me lip service but didn’t follow through - not that the insert itself pushed off! I’d be super pissed about something like that!

haha, ok sorry. English is a beautiful language... haha.

I just bought a house of horrors le
What are issues I should look for when I finally get it and unbox it.

Also what mods would be 100% needed

Medisinyl is all you need on a le

I just noticed this on Facebook - are the toppers being remade or is this just old text?

B68D64C8-3891-4E3B-A188-CAE866AF4056 (resized).png

It’s time for me to mix things up a bit, so I’m planning on listing my EHoH Premium but I’d thought I’d reach out to the group first. It’s HUO. I’m the second owner and have owned it for about a year and a half. I’ve had zero issues with it, like none. Stern shooter knob, shaker and purple plastic protectors. I’m asking $9,000. If anyone is interested, just let me know. I can send pics, etc. Also, I will make a donation to Pinside if it sells. Feel free to check out my feedback. Thanks everyone.

Is it possible you have a connection problem on the harness and plug to the board?

This. I also really like the apron lcd screens

Nitro Pinball has the topper available for preorder. A bunch of other hard to find ones too.

I just installed my topper. Happy day!!! I know that it opens but what makes it open??? Maybe a certain shot?? Beat a mode???

It opens with multi ball modes and in attract mode when you hit the flipper. There’s a couple settings to check in the options menu if you want it to happen more or less often

I can get my topper to open in test mode but not when I'm actually playing. Any advice on how to get my topper working would be appreciated. Thank you

I've had Elvira a little over a year now. When I first got it I had the rapid Happy Hour scoring from the right ramp. I adjusted the opto alignment and it's been fine until last week. I noticed it start counting 2 or 3 right ramps each time instead of just 1. So, tonight I decided to readjust the alignment again.

So, I slide the glass off and take a look and it's a really tight fit to get in there. I take off the crypt roof and then remove the entire ramp to get to the opto screws. It was here that I thought, "I don't remember it being this complicated last time". For whatever reason, my brain has just ignored the fact that I should start by lifting the playfield up from inside the cabinet. I turned a 5 min quick fix into almost an hour.

Just thought I'd share my embarrassment.

Life is hard. It's harder when you're stupid.

was having issues with the house ramp opto not working or only sometimes. seems the plastic piece that looks to stop ball from flying out of top of ramp in back of house also is used to keep the top of the ramp rigid AND squared up.
Firgured this might be helpful for other firstime pinball owners like myself ..working on the house is abit intimidating

This is a great tip. Thanks for posting.

I know some people had mechanical problems with their toppers, but assuming yours is working properly in attract, it might just be the setting in the menu for how often it works. Im not in front of my machine, but im pretty sure the settings work as a percentage of how often it will trigger during a multiball event. I turned mine up to 100 so it will trigger any time that its possible. Still only happens during certain events though.

I would love to know what to change my seetings to as I almost never have the topper open...the gargoyle eyes light up but I cant tell you the last time it actually opened...was thinking that it might be broken but it did work a few times...a long while ago.

If anyone has recommended settings for the topper, I'd really appreciate sharing them!

Thanks
Ed

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/20-10343

They’re the boney flippers from Scared Stiff. I added some discoloration to them to make them look old.

Poor mans topper.

AC051056-9230-4C2F-A211-4A5D8B6668C5 (resized).jpeg

In the club. Great game.

All of a sudden when I start a haunt the ball is not staying in the house.

Also during GAPPA when all the lights are lit at the house entrance, when the ball goes in the house it does not register.

I figure i will test the house switches first. Any advice before i start troubleshooting?