I had a loose screw on the side of the battering ram as well, but the bottom plate was in place. Sometimes battering ram isn't registering hits for me either.

Occasionally I have a ball released from the lock when it shouldn't be, or an extra ball launched into play. Haven't figured out the pattern, if any, yet.

Pardon my ignorance as this is my first pin... but I installed 1.18 several weeks back and haven't encountered the midnight madness mode, though I did set the date/time after the update. Just checked the date/time now and its back to the factory default. I set it, saved, went back in and confirmed it was set and then rebooted the machine. Back to factory default. Repeated the process again with the same result. I assume this is not normal? I noticed there is a battery on the mainboard, maybe it's dead in my brand new machine?

Yes they are, as are audit stats. They were all cleared on the update to 1.18, but it sounds like that is to be expected with Stern pins.

Just did that now, set is to 11:59 (since I'm impatient). After first ball launch game went into midnight madness mode. Six ball multiball is chaotic, haha. Once I rebooted the machine again date/time back to its usual Feb 15, 2015 7:56:xx PM. Didn't mention it before but I have a pro.

Thanks for your assistance. Hopefully another GoT owner can confirm if their clock loses its setting as well. Then I'll know if this is an isolated case or an issue with my particular machine. I agree though, seems like a software bug.

Edit: I gave Stern a call, they are going to check it and let me know. When I hear back I'll post an update here.

Edit 2: Chaz at Stern promptly checked into this for me on a machine and with the devs and couldn't reproduce the issue so this isn't normal. They are recommending we replace the CPU board. My two experiences with Stern customer service so far have been great.

Regarding the flicker I've seen it too, was happening pre 1.18 for me.

Thank you very much for this post and your update. I am going to check mine when I get home and hopefully I have the same issue. Nothing else is misbehaving in my machine so this would be a quick fix. I guess high scores and other settings aren't stored in volatile memory and lost with removal of battery. This would explain why the clock gets reset but nothing else does.

Based on what SaneWilly posted above I inspected my battery holder and the top tab on my holder was sloppy so I bent it down for firmer contact. In my case this didn't make a difference. I confirmed correct polarity and took the battery out again and tested it with a multimeter. My battery was toast, zero volts. Replaced it with a brand new 2032 and now the the date/time survives a reboot.

If you are having an issue with your clock, check the battery holder per SaneWilly's post and if it persists I'd check the battery. Odd that the battery would be DOA but it is obvious now that the battery is only for the internal clock. Settings and high score preservation are not reliant on the battery. I'm glad I didn't proceed with exchanging the CPU board.