I have a new Blood Red that is crashing and restarting mid game, I have already made and installed a new SD card and it seems to be doing it less but still happening.

My BRK will freeze up and reboot after playing a number of games. I know others with different versions that have the same issue. It feels like a memory leak in the code. I have never had it happen shorty after starting the game. I haven't counted, but I'm thinking 20+ games after starting up the machine before it happens on mine.

I do like an element of randomness in any game, which is something that is almost completely missing from EHOH. There's never been any mystery award and players have always been able to determine which haunt will play next. The secret haunts was THE random element.

Rob

I'm going to refer to it as the BRoKen update.

Rob

Do you remember what speed SD card it was?

PinMonk did a great write up on SD cards where he tested a number of them to find what booted the fastest. Read write speed matters for boot time (tested boots 6 seconds faster than stock), and helps too with video and audio files loading which may be some of the causes of crashes if there were problems encoding some of the videos or audio files in the code build.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/improve-spike2-boot-time-reliability-w-new-sd-card-ratings-within

TLDR: Gets something in the UHS I 130-200 MB/s range for best results. Don’t buy from Amazon as they have a lot of fake SD cards that don’t match their listed storage or read rates.

I’m at a complete loss on these ramp optos. I’ve widened the holes, replaced the optos, re-crimped the connectors and replaced the SD card. No matter what, after a few minutes I’m right back to nonstop scoring on the right ramp opto.

I can’t seem to replicate it with any amount of shaking or pounding on the playfield. I would almost say that it cannot fail during a switch test…it seems to only happen during a live game.

I’ll take any suggestions people have because I am just flat out of ideas.

For the record the opto works perfectly for ~5 minutes before going crazy.

Enlarging the holes only helps so much. Part of the issue is that the little boards can move a bit which throws off the alignment. At least that is what I noticed on my game. Only after I visually inspected alignment and really tightened the screws down was the issue resolved on my game.

Rob

Buy a new SD card and reinstall the software on it.

Made it Gappa Angry today (doesn't happen often) and all my hard shots to the house ramp to lock the ball kept rejecting back down the ramp. I was able to start modes and hit the center ramp no problem before Gappa Angry started. But after, no matter how hard a shot, it just kept rejecting. Has this been documented before and is there something I should be looking for?

Scratch that. I just played a new game and the ball will not go into the house. It always rolls back out of the house. Time to do some investigating.

*Updated*

I did some searching and it appears that my machine is not immune to the dreaded house reject. It reminds me of the Twilight Zone lock shot reject. It seems the harder the shot, the more it wants to reject. The ball goes up the ramp and seems to rattle around up there. Not sure what to do.

That sucks. I can't remember which game, but I had one that did similar and I put the soft side of self stick Velcro along the top edge and it buffered the shit and kept the ball from bouncing back. Might be worth a shot.

Lower the flipper power, it's been well discussed in this thread.

Rob

Been having issues where the pop bumpers will sometimes register as a house ramp shot. Then tonight the cellar stopped opening. Snuck a shot in the back door and eventually ejected it out and a nylon spacer came shooting out with the ball. Appears to me that the ramp link is cracked. My first pin and have not had very long. Anyone had to replace this?

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Looks like the hardware holding the nylon spacer came off. Removing the house would be best to see what’s going on. This is a great video to get you started.

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Has anyone had a problem with the one way gate in the garage lock? I’ve had the machine for a few years and it’s just started happening where the gate will get stuck in the up position, causing rejects when there are two balls already locked. Just wanted to see of anyone had an easy solution before I starting pulling the ramp and house out to get at the problem.

After a week of searching high-and-low, my wife found where our mystery screw was from--under/beside the left ramp. Anyone have any suggestions for getting it on? Or, is this a scenario where we have to remove the ramp to get access to this plastic?

Cheers from Canada,

Winston.

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A very helpful tool to have…

https://www.titanpinball.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=83&search=Magnetic

Really hoping Stern adds speaker lighting code to EHOH.

Ball is getting stuck in the control gate when I launch a ball for super skill shot when I am trying to get the back door shot. Anyone have this issue and have a fix? See photo. Thanks

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I get a ball stuck there from time to time. Not lately though. It's never been a huge issue, and since the ball find usually frees it, I haven't addressed it. I'll try to get a pick next time it happens.

They will most likely add it to all their Spike 2/3 games, but timing will vary. How much are they anyhow?

Rob

https://shop.sternpinball.com/products/pro-premium-speaker-lighting-system

Retail is $199.99

Could someone please provide a solution to prevent the ball from settling behind the crypt between the pop bumper skirt and the post? I have attempted several methods, including using a thicker rubber, removing the rubber, and loosening and repositioning the post, but none have been successful.

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I have the same issue. I’ve been considering a wedge-shaped piece of rubber so there isn’t a flat spot for it to rest.

I would adjust the spoon/switch to make the pop more sensitive. That way it triggers and won’t rest there

I'm not particularly a fan of the official Stern clown shooter rod for this machine (or its $180 price tag), so I spent about $12 ($7 for the skull, $5 for a blank rod) and 10 minutes to make this one, which I like much better. I think it really adds to the overall vibe.

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I just added these to my Jaws Premium, and I'd say wait a bit. The interactivity on Jaws is pretty limited so far, especially given the price. I'm hoping they expand the code for them over time, because they do have potential. I'd feel a lot better about them at $100-125, to be honest. The kit has about $5 worth of LED strip, some plastic rings, a few wires, and new metal speaker plates to swap in.

I haven't encountered this problem on my EHOH, but I've found that installing a small silicone cabinet dot pad (similar to below), next to the pop bumper, has fixed this same issue in other games.

https://www.amazon.com/Silicone-192pcs-Adhesive-Furniture-Protection/dp/B0CYBTWJCH/ref=asc_df_B0CYBTWJCH/

I'm going to have to give this a try. I have to shake my machine pretty much every play session at least once because the ball stalls behind the crypt. It's not a big deal, but it IS annoying, and if this can fix it so simply, I'm all for it. Thanks for the tip!

Hello fellow EHOH Owners ! I'm happy to report that I'm finally part of this group and the game is awesome. I wanted to share with you a mod that I recently purchased and I highly recommend. It's the crate mod from vimtoman and it fits perfectly with the theme of the game. Very highly detailed (check out the pics) and very well done. The shipping was fast and well packaged and even came with an extra motor for the crate door. I'm looking more at the crate mod during gameplay that I do at the pinball, LOL. Great job and thanks vimtoman. Here's his email if anyone is interested. [email protected]

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The honeymoon period is over and I still really love playing this game. One of the things I really like is the old school music in the modes. It always makes me smile when these songs kick in. This game has truly great sound engineering, that I appreciate more now that I upgraded the sound to the top shelf speakers and amp recently. I've been doing sound upgrades recently and this was the last game I upgraded after doing FF, Rush, STh and Jaws. Of all of them at this point I would say EHOH has the most impressive sound with really tight bass.

My formula for easy plug and play DIY sound is Alpine S-S50 speakers in the backbox, JBL Studio 82 speaker in the cabinet and the new Pinsound Pinblaster amp in the backbox. External sub optional. All of this is plug and play with no mounting adapters. If you have a premium (or pro) spike 2 game with the 4" backbox speakers, Kicker DSC40 speakers are plug and play. The Pinblaster and correct name brand speakers are key to simple upgrade. If you haven't seen the new pinblaster go to pinsound.org and check it out. It is definitely a game changer. I also put in external volume buttons on all of these games because I like good sound but I don't like it nearly as loud and most of my friends seem too...

Could you list the speaker links from Amazon please? I’d like to maybe do this

You list EHOH premium in your collection, so I assume that came with the 4 inch Stern speakers in the backbox. Kicker DSC40 are direct replacements. They will bolt in and you will need to solder or splice the wires from the Stern speakers when you remove them. Chose between 4 and 8 ohms in the SPIKE menu to see which sounds better to you. You can also enable a 10-band EQ
https://a.co/d/dWiPmFJ

For the cabinet speaker the JBL Studio 82 is awesome and the new version fits directly into the factory mounting hardware, so all that has to be done is the speaker wire connection. Use the fade control in the menus to increase the volume in the cabinet just a bit for more bass.
https://a.co/d/c2RyYuO

Alternately you can upgrade the backbox speaker mounts to 5.25 (like the LEs have) at the same time as buying speaker lights. You just need the combo kit with Type 13 lights and the 5.25 speaker plates from speakerlightkits.com along with some red trim rings for Elvira. For 5.25 speakers these are really great on top of speaker light kit. Choose 8ohms in the SPIKE menu.
https://a.co/d/ekS9pyR

www.pinsound.org for the Pinblaster to really kick it up a few notches. Pinblaster with good name-brand speakers sounds great with the STERN EQ set flat.

I encountered a significant challenge with the house rejects, as only 20% of the shots to the house would successfully go through. The remaining 80% would reject and return down the house. After experiencing several frustrating games, I decided to investigate the root cause of this issue.

Upon removing the house and examining the ramp, I observed a slight misalignment between the movable ramp and the shelf above it. The ball trails on the sides of the ramp clearly indicated that the ball was launching off the shelf and propelling upwards.

To rectify this issue, I removed the movable ramp, carefully adjusted the hinge mount to raise the movable ramp to match the height of the shelf, and reassembled the entire mechanism. As a result of this adjustment, the shot to the house is now 100% successful and operates smoothly.

I am sharing this solution in case other users are experiencing similar issues.

The second photo is after adjustment.

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We watched Elvira: Mistress of the Dark over the weekend again. Actually, not a bad movie. Corny, Campy and fun as you would expect. What's neat about it is how the designers really paid attention to detail with the movie. Elvira's mansion, Gonk, and especially the music. I could hear familiar music used in Scared Stiff and EHOH throughout.

Good catch! You can easily see the ball trajectory was being affected by the wear line. If and when I ever get my game unpacked again, this is one of the first things I will double check.

Rob

Hi everyone,

Just joined the club with a NIB premium. Love the game and excited to play more.

I’m dialing the game and had a few questions I didn’t find in the topic index:
- My crypt works but its movement are not smooth as if there was some resistance and the gate doesn’t fully close (see picture - this is how it looks when machine is off). Is this normal or do I need to make some adjustments to the mech?
- My plunges don’t have tons of velocity - I.e., when I pull the plunger fully, I barely make it to the left orbit and often make the backdoor shot as my ball lacks velocity when it gets behind the house. Is this normal? Took a slow mo video and the ball seems to exit the shooter lane straight; it start ricocheting once it hits the metal plate.

Thanks!

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Movement should be smooth, definitely check out the motor underneath. But yeah, the alignment of the mech sucks and that is 1000% normal

Mine needed bracket to be bent straight it was crooked. Then added lubricant. Take off crypt room and look to see if bracket is straight. This was a known issue with last run.

Ok thanks. I looked at the motor and it works fine… it’s as if there was a bit of friction somewhere and so the smooth motor movements don’t translate in smooth movement of the crypt mech.

I’ll open it and see what I can see and where I can apply some silicone lubricant.

Any advices on how to take it apart? From the bottom of the PF I could not see an obvious issue so was thinking of also taking apart the top - can I just unscrew the roof or do I need to start somewhere else?

Thanks for the help!

Start with just the roof. There are 2 screws for each roof panel. I recently was able to fix mine with only having to take off the roof for a similar issue. It wasn't moving smoothly due to a screw/nut coming loose. I added a little more lubricant in the area where you'll see grease and tightened up the screw and that fixed my issue. I had to have someone else trigger the switch test while I watched the mech to identify the loose screw. If lucky, you won't have to take more of it apart than the roof.

I had the exact same issues you are having from my recently purchased game. The weak plunges wouldn't even make it to the backdoor shot for me. The issue seemed to be because the shooter rod was hanging too far back from the shooting lane. I had to extend the length of it by removing the rubber tip and sticking a couple of small nuts (or washers could work too) inbetween the rubber and the tip. This extended the length enough to add enough velocity to shoot the ball around the orbit.

The issue with the crypt is still something I'm trying to resolve. Mine gets stuck about 1 out of 10 times even after adding some lubricant.

Another issue I've been having is the house ramp will ocassionally get stuck but hitting the gargoyle post to the left of it. It's quite frustrating because I have to remove the glass to get it unstuck.

Do we have the identical game?! Haha I have had the same issue with the ramp getting stuck on the small horizontal rod holding the gargoyle.

Thanks for the tip on the shooter rod; will try your suggested fix to see if that’s the source of the issue.

Appreciate everyone’s input!

Solved the plunger issue by simply removing one of the washer on the shooter rod. Thanks smiley-coyote for putting me on the right path. Had a GZ with the same issue a year ago should have thought of it (and crazy Stern still has the same engineering/ QA issues).

For the crypt, I opened the roof but nothing obvious jumped at me. I filmed the movement of the crypt and it only has issues when the skull comes out; moving to reveal the subway or closing the door is fairly smooth. So, ans a next step, I’ll inspect the skull spring/ mechanism to see if there is any weird point of friction…

I also inspected the mech from under the PF, the horizontal arm with a nylon washer that links to the motor has quite a bit of play but the screw seemed tight and I assume it’s by design (in case the arm moves/ so it can reduce friction with the pf). Let me know if instead the arm should be tightly screwed/ flush with the nylon washer.

Will possibly take it all off over the weekend but right now I’m enjoying the new machine too much!

Thanks for all the suggestions and support, much appreciated!

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I got one of these NIB about a month ago, and my crypt has the exact same problems. I'd say that the skull reveals itself fully about 70% of the time. (I also had a gargoyle fly off its post on day two, but that was an easy fix.) It's a really fun machine, but it's frustrating that it's got these quality control issues after years on the market and multiple production runs. Good luck getting it dialed in!

Glad to hear you solved the plunger issue! If you ever figure out the house ramp issue let me know. Mine is getting stuck in the same place that you mentioned. Fortunately it doesn't happen to me too often, but when it does get stuck I can sometimes hit the gargoyle post with the ball hard enough to help dislodge it.

The crypt has been getting stuck less frequently the more I play. I think after hitting it a bunch of times with the ball maybe it's loosening it up a bit.

Once dialed in this game is a blast to play!

Regarding the ramp hanging on the gargoyle standups, just take some side cutters and snip off a tiny bit of the flat part of the "pin" that the ramp is catching on. Plenty of excess to remove, no more hangups. Worked for me. If I'm understanding the issue you're describing. The flat part of the pins here..... both gargoyles have it. Snip about half of the flat part off.
Screenshot_20240822_160944_Brave (resized).jpg

Question: when trapping the ball and the house is ready to start a haunt, how do you select the right most window? The one that only opens when you have a key I think. Which window do you have to select for the right window to be lit when the pinball enters the house? The window selected moves when you flip the ball to start the haunt.

Awesome, thanks for the tip! I will try that out.