Hi all,

I have a Walking Dead Premium that has some really strange things happening.

When I press the start button all of these things start happening:
1.Prison Multi-ball mode automatically starts (typically you should have to hit the prison doors several times for this mode to start)
2.The ball automatically launches (normally you plunge the first ball and if you drain the ball quickly while the ball save is lit, the ball is automatically launched.
3. The drop target coils fire in a strange pattern, the coil on the three target bank fires three times then the single drop target under the right spinner fires. After a pause of about 10 seconds the cycle starts up again.

None of these things should be happening at the push of the start button. The last time I pressed the start button I had a score of 11 million points on ball one WITHOUT pressing the flipper buttons, just the start button once.

Here is what Ive tested/checked:

*Checked for switch alerts, nothing is posted.
*went through switch tests and coil tests with zero warnings.
*raised the playfield several times and checked all cable attachments, everything has a solid connection.
*unseated and reseated all of the connections to the drop target banks.
*checked for burned fuses in the backbox and have not found any.
*I cleaned the playfield really well thinking that the optos in front of the prison might be dirty causing the Prison multi-ball to start
*ran a test on the ball launcher, works perfectly
*All codes are up to date

I have no idea what to check next, the game is in great shape and is nearly new.
Does anyone have any advice on what could be causing all of these problems to be happening at the same time?
Does anyone have a source for repair advice on newer Stern games? Im finding lots of helpful stuff for older games but not newer ones.

Thanks!!

Thanks so much for the advice! I opened up the back box and disconnected everything as suggested and the game is working normally. My fingers are crossed that the problem is just a loose connection that needs to be tightened up every once in awhile. The game came directly from Stern and I noticed that one set of ribbon cables had a small amount of hot glue on the top of the connector on both sides. I'll keep my eye on that cable.

Thanks so much!

Oh, ps it was odd that you mentioned HAL because the game was singing "daisy" when the trouble was occurring.

Hi Everyone,

Im still being plagued by this same problem. I think I have it fixed and then it comes back. Im having two problems occurring at the same time, they seem to be related or its just bad luck that they are happening at the same time.

To go over my problems again-

When I press the start button, hits to the prison immediately register on their own until PRISON is spelled out. At the same time all four of the drop targets go off, the cycle starts on the left and they go down in sequence, 123 and then over to the drop target under the spinner on the right then back again to the left side.

When I enter the switch alert section in diagnostics, I expect to see nothing, instead switch alerts are coming up for both the prison optos and the drop target bank. I shot a video of this and posted to Youtube. When I shot the video, I was touching nothing on the playfield, everything was activating on its own:

Id appreciate any advice!

Thank you. I think this is a good suggestion, I have tried unplugging the plugs from the board. Ive also checked the alignment of the optos and they are lined up well. My thinking is that the drop target sequence and the prison madness are linked together somehow. It seems that when the problem goes away, both symptoms vanish at the same time, its not like the prison optos correct but the drop targets still fire, both happen at the same time or are functioning properly at the same time.