Wipe Out is a four ball game.

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When you run the switch test (self test 5), the only switches that should register are 24/trough and 34/outhole. If other switches register they need to be investigated. If other switches report inactive (Gottlieb's definition of an inactive switch is one that has not registered in the past 15 games), those need to be investigated as well.

There are three opto switches in Wipe Out - left scoop (SW80), right ramp (SWA0), and slalom starting gate (SWB0). These are controlled by the quad opto interface board under the playfield. This board has four LEDs on it. When one of the optos is tripped, the opto's corresponding LED on the board lights up. You can test it in switch test mode. If the LED never lights up or is always on, it's usually one of the following:

The solder joints on the opto have gone cold and need to be reflowed (both xmit and rcv).
The 120 ohm 5w resistor on the quad opto board has gone bad or desoldered itself.

You could also have a bad opto or a wiring problem but 95% of the time it's one of the above.

viperrwk

Just to add my 2-cents...had the same issue - got a moment today to look at it....the quad opto board (underneath the playfield) was pristine - just re-seated the connectors since I was staring at them....the opto's at the top of the ramp - for me - I don't see how you can realistically perform any alignment - the opto's sit within a plastic socket...so I simply loosened both TX and RX boards cleaned the opto's with alcohol and re-flowed the 4 solder pads on each board....(to me that was the root problem).....put it all back together and everything was copacetic....

I'm adding my 2 cents to this chain as well. I had an issue with the Wipe Out starting gate working intermittently. The machine would play fine for weeks, then balls would get stuck at the top of the starting gate for weeks. Then it would work. Then it wouldn't. Opto switch tests worked fine in test mode. Ultimately, it came down to needing to reflow the solder points on each side of the bracket with the opto sensors. This became very easy to address once I started looking at the 4 LEDs on the quad opto board under the playfield. From time to time D4 LED was lit, indicating the starting gate opto had a broken laser, or something was present...when something wasn't. I removed the bracket and opto sensor assembly from the starting gate, flipped up the playfield, reconnected the 4pin harness under the playfield so that I could now play with the opto sensor and see the quad opto board together. When I put my finger in the opto, the LED would be lit - as expected. As I jostled the sides of the opto sensor bracket where the solder pads are, the LED on the board would be intermittent. It was obvious that the solder joints were not solid. In particular, I was actually able to jostle each solder joint individually and see it's impact on the LED on the opto board. I knew the issue then were the two solder points of the opto sensor on the left side. I reflowed those two points. BAM. back in business. To the point made by Sonic , I went a step further to just reflow the 4 solder points on each side of the opto bracket, clean the opto with alcohol - and good to go.