Yes in fact Keith stated that 1.94 specifically corrected the sound popping that folks complained about after upgrading to 1.90 so I don't know you may want to wait a few days and see what that does for you.

The sound makes a crackling noise. I'll have to check the connections. Jjp recommended to my dealer that I clean the contacts. I haven't had a chance to yet.

I think you are having the same problem I did. If you have a spare 3.5mm cord try that. It should be the cable that connects from the pink plug on the inside of the metal case on the sound board to the green plug on the outside of the metal case that is actual the computer motherboard(MSI)

Thanks for a heads up. I'll try it out.

So this rubber keeps splitting and I finally found out why. Any tips?

One of those hard post rubbers inside the playfield cutouts to reduce the play in the rods? Not sure they'd fit as-is, but something like that.

That piece uses the gray stickey strip to attach directly underneath the writing on the ramps. The strip is situated directly between the Optos, and sticks to the underside of the ramp. It is used to diffuse the light that is used to light up the words on the ramp. If you look closely you'll see that most likely one ramp has this and one is missing.

IMG_0051 (resized).PNG

Thanks for letting me know!

I tried to reapply the diffuser under the ramp, but I can't figure out a way to accomplish this without taking the ramp off. Thoughts?

Just trying to figure out if it could be the problem many are having or if mine is different and maybe hardware related instead of code related.

To me it sounds like an old fax machine. The speakers keep on popping after the noisy start up. (Turn your speakers up because I only recorded with an i-phone . sound is much louder in reality than in the video).
Does anyone else have this or does the known issue only appear during call outs during gameplay? Because I have this popping all the time even in attract mode with no sound or call out at all.
Is the dead headphone jack a known problem too? Because mine is not working at all. It is not even popping.

Here is the video of my fax machine:

Sounds like the sound board.
You can rule out the motherboard by connecting the input signal to another sound system (like computer speaker system or something) instead of the sound board of The Hobbit.
Be sure to try both the original signal cable (between mb and sb) and with a new cable.
You will figure it out, no problem.

As Zebulon noted, make sure to use a different 3.5MM cable. The original cable is junk, and was the source of my problem.

does smaug say anything when you lock your first ball? He doesn't on mine. On the second ball he will say something like I smell you or whatever. running 1.9 code

Also on my previous post I had mentioned I turned my flippers down two notches because they were too strong. Well now a couple of games into it and they felt weak so I bumped them up to where they were.

Smaug growls when you lock ball one smelling your presence.....

ddt

He doesn't speak per se after lock one.

If you remove the plastics below the ramp to give yourself working room and then remove the 4 screws holding the ramp "flaps" to the PF, you should be able to gently lift the ramp about an inch and wedge something underneath (I used a 4 hour energy bottle on it's side) to hold it in place while you position and then press the piece back into place. You'll have to either remove the newton ball or carefully work the two ramp sides up past it to get the proper height. Then afterward be sure to be careful when reinstalling the ramp flap screws - you need to push the ramps tightly down against the PF and line up the screw holes carefully so that they are centered below the holes in the ramp flaps. Maintain even pressure until the screws are seated just below the surface of the flaps.

Maybe I'm over looking something obvious, but I can't adjust when a replay is awarded based on points. I have my Hobbit at our restaurant and the thing just shells out free game after free game , for the folks that are semi decent at it. I would like to be able to adjust when the first replay is issued and it can be dynamic from that point , but the 310,000 or so is too low to start ... I feel this is a critical fix for ops, unless I'm overlooking something.

Thank you for the detailed instructions.

Similar to mine. When it starts it sounds like a dial up modem playing through crackling feedback then after it starts it has constant crackling static noise from the left speaker. I put in a ticket to JJP support 2 weeks ago and haven't heard anything back yet. Mines been like that since i received it a few months ago. I've traced it back to the left RCA connector on the soundboard thing.

EDIT: Just went and double checked and it doesn't matter what cable I have plugged into the left/white channel directly on the soundboard thing, it puts out a static crackle noise.

Maybe software will fix it in next patch. I would wait for that before too much hardware remediation

I'm already running on 1.94b and it made no difference to this. This isn't the popping/clipping the patch fixes. This is full crackle/static.

I would suggest trying a replacement 3.5MM cable that runs from the pink jack on the sound board to the green jack on the motherboard. That solved my problem. If that doesn't produce better results try connecting the RCA speaker wire direct to the soundboard, bypassing the dual female connector that is mounted to the metal PC case.

I have also had good results calling JJP support direct instead of putting in a ticket.

I'll give switching that cable a try. Would it be possible for that pink/green cable to only be sending static through the left channel though? Neither left or right cable gives static when plugged into the right channel so I know it isn't the barrel connector at the case. It's coming direct from the left channel connection.

Since I didn't have the opportunity yet to buy new cables, I kept on plying with the popping speakers and had thesecoming up:
A) I started it up and the constant popping was coming out of all 2 speakers and ALSO the sub on the bottom as usual. It was on attract mode for one minute and then I SWITCHED the game OFF and SWITCHED it BACK ON a 30 seconds after. And now the constant popping noise was gone. Crackling was still there though. After 2 games it came back and kept on popping.

Since I didn't have the opportunity yet to buy new cables, I kept on playing with the popping speakers and had thesecoming up:
A) I started it up and the constant popping was coming out of all 2 speakers and ALSO the sub on the bottom as usual. It was on attract mode for one minute and then I SWITCHED the game OFF and SWITCHED it BACK ON a 30 seconds after. And now the constant popping noise was gone. Crackling was still there though. After 2 games it came back and kept on popping.
You might test if that is the same for you as well.

sorry double post

I rolled back to 1.30 and the popping went away. It started for me in 1.90. It continues in 1.94. 98% sure something changed in the software between 1.30 and 1.90.

I heard of different speaker systems for PC that had issues like that and were caused by a faulty driver software. But shouldn't then everyone experience the same after upgrading to 1.90 ? Just asking because I am not really into electronics. Don't know much about it so my question may sound dumb.

Hi , where have you found the 1.94 or 1.94b update ??

The guys who have these updates are beta testers. It is not released yet.

Current version is 1.94P, but it's in beta. Still has bugs, though, so there might be more fixes before final release.

Absolutely no idea. I just know that it didn't do it on 1.30, but does it on 1.90 and 1.94, so it seems to be a software thing.

That sounds logic. Is there a way to download 1.30 somewhere? So I could switch the code from 1.9 to 1.3 to test if it fixes the popping. So at least I would know the cause and could stop looking for hardware problems. Mine came with 1.90 installed so I don't have 1.30 on a stick.

Download the full install for 1.01 from JJP's site:

http://support.jerseyjackpinball.com/downloads/th/TheHobbit-autobuild-v1.01.iso

and then delta update forward to 1.30 or 1.31.

1.31 delta update link is here:
http://support.jerseyjackpinball.com/downloads/th/TheHobbit_Delta_v1.31.zip

(Note that if you haven't already, you need to download ubootnetin for the 1.01 full install to make a bootable USB)

I have my game at 6.9 degrees. When I'm playing a mode where the bumpers are involved, every time I shoot the loop for the magnet, the ball drops into the bumpers but doesn't ever hit one. It just rolls out. Do you guys have this issues? I'm going to try different leveling the game differently, but I like how it's set.

1.90 is the current delta update on their site under downloads.

LTG : )

Right, but I gave him a direct link to 1.31.

Have you checked the sensitivity on the pop bumper switches? Maybe they're not set close enough to make contact easily.

When they do work, they work as expected. In modes where the ball drops down from the magnet, it hits the left rubber and rolls past any bumper and out of bag end. I'll check out the switches though. Thanks for the info!

Rom Do you have a pair of headphones?

Also, the popping problem clears up if you reboot the machine. The first 3-5 games after the reboot are perfect, then the popping gradually gets worse. It's better in 1.94P, but it's still too frequent, especially after a number of games.

Yes, I had an issue that only affected the right channel. So, I'm sure left channel only is a possibility.

Yes, but the headphone jack is completely dead. And yes, I turned it on.
Oh and today my ORK head fell off. It was only barely attached with one screw and wiggled off. The second screw still remains hidden somewhere in the machine. Lockdown bar doesn't close unless you really force it, popping is annoying. A friend also told me that my LE number sticker would be missing on the apron. I didn't even know it was supposed to have one. AAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!
I really want to love that game but atm it only pisses me off. And even though it must be amazing if you can finally play it. But since I got it I am only working on it and figuring problems out. That turns off a bit.

Rom Please lift the playfield, disconnect the the audio cable from the MAIN board (green connector in the back of metal box, put in your headphones there, do you still hear your audio problem or not?

Removing the subwoofer lead (red connector inside the box) seems to stop the popping, not the main audio lead.