I've got a weird one on my pro. I was in the middle of a mummy multiball and when I noticed there was only one ball in play. I shook the machine a bit figuring it was stuck somewhere, but it didn't appear so I just kept playing until the other ball drained and mummy ended. I couldn't see it anywhere and ball search couldn't find it so I ended the game and pulled the glass off.
I've now been looking for the ball for 30 minutes and for the life of me I can't find it.
- Checked all the spots I've had, seen or could imagine a ball getting stuck amongst wires and supports under the upper third of the playfield. Twice. With a flashlight.
- Emptied the trough just to confirm it wasn't a dead opto not detecting it.
- Raised the playfield to full vertical hoping it would fall out or at least make a sound.
- Lifted the playfield out and turned it 90 degrees sideways as well as upside down way past vertical. Nothing.
- Got my wife to go through everything too in case I was experiencing refrigerator blindness.
- Removed the right ramp wireform and plastics down the right side as one time when I was adjusting the launch guide set screw I thought it seemed like there was enough space for a ball to hide under the plastic if it got under there somehow.
- Checked inside the cab itself even though I can't imagine how it could get down there. Removed everything in there (Cashbox, bag of plastics, etc).
- Checked inside the cashbox in case it somehow managed to roll into the hole not fed by a coin mech.
- Checked inside the backbox on the crackpot theory it could somehow rebound off something and launch straight up through the wiring channels. Nope.
About the only thing I could still do is disassemble everything in the upper third of the playfield like the center ramp, captive ball, surrounding plastics etc to see if its wedged in there some way that the eyes and fingers of 2 people couldn't detect. I was hoping to avoid that as there's a lot to keep track of, but I'm out of other ideas.
Anyone got a hot tip?
edit: I've now removed the center ramp and the cover on the newton ball. The only place left is under the plastics the ramps rise above. I've already looked under them as much as I can just loosening things a bit and there's no sign of it anywhere. I guess I'll do that tomorrow because taking all the support structures mounted on top of them out is a job I don't want to tackle this late at night, and I'm doubting it's there anyway despite there being no other place left.