Quoted from fastpinball:Question for Fathom owners:
What code version are you running and do you experience the end of game lockup that some describe?
This information is helpful for narrowing down whether or not a certain code update made the issue worse for some.
Thank you in advance!
Aaron
FAST Pinball
Currently on the latest code that's available to download on the Haggis website, which is dated March 2023. Up until about 2 months ago we were running a code that was dated January 2023 (don't have game in front of me right now to check the version numbers these dates are).
With both versions we had the game lockups.
Not just the normal 4 player 15 second lag, but complete game lockups.
These would occur on any number of players, including one player games, and it was not just at the end of a game, quite often it would lock up after ball one.
In the past I had assumed this was down to a communication error between the computer and fast, whenever these lockups would start happening constantly I would reseat all connectors and sometimes the game would behave for a short period of time. I've also looked at other fixes for a 'communication issue' such as replacing usb cables for higher quality ones (as doing this with the hdmi cables fixed flickering lcd screens) and rerouting data cables away from power sources and power cables incase of magnetic interference.
About a week ago I read a post that mentioned stuck switches or even possible phantom switch hits filling up the memory buffer and possibly crashing the game, so I inspected the switches (note the built in switch diagnostics is absolutely useless). Turns out we had a leaf switch behind the left drop targets that was constantly in contact plus a dodgy microswitch on a star roll-over. I've fixed those and so far after a week and about 100 games we've had no lock ups YET. I can't say definitely that is the cause yet, but it was previously very rare to get more than 5 games in before having to reboot the game.
The game also gets insanely hot inside the cabinet, so I have for a while thought overheating could also be an issue, but lockups sometimes occur immediately on the first game, before the game has a chance to overheat. I've been considering drilling holes in the cabinet and installing fans, but trying every other option I can think of first.