Got my Premium last night. Worked great for an hour. Then this started happening:

I hit start. It INSTANTLY selects a song and AUTO-PLUNGES the ball. This repeats ad nauseam until it goes through all three balls. The normal game noise plays but there's also this constant low-pitched sound effect that is also repeating and the score seems to be going up from it. I haven't played the game enough to know what switch is connected to that sound effect.

My distributer told me to go through the diagnostics and check active switches. I did that, it cycles a bunch of numbers and switches and I don't know what they mean (i'm pretty new to the hobby). Then I turn the machine off and on. Reboot - and it works again.

Turn it on this morning to see if it's still fixed. Nope. Exact same problem starts again. For all I know this is the simplest problem ever, but I'm new so I have no idea what to do. Put a call in to Stern Technical support and waiting to hear back.

Any ideas? Thanks

This is one of the switches triggering - hence why it auto launches the ball. More than likely your orb target cup needs adjusting. Covered a lot in this thread.

Shoot that with your iphone in slow-motion video mode so you can read all the switches that are triggering. Likely one or more of those are stuck and causing this.

I bet it’s the orb.

Solved it! Stern tech support FTW. Clairvoyant switch was registering ever time i hit a flipper. Just bent the switch back a smidge and all solved. Easy peasy.

Can someone explain how to center your plunger (horizontally and vertically)? Read this thread and I'm having the auto-plunge into the post issue and have never centered a plunger before. Thanks!

I can't explain it, exactly but I can give you a good tip on how to start playing with it. Loosen the 3 phillips head screws, then completely remove the two hex head sheet metal screws. It will move a lot, but won't if you do not remove the hex heads. I had to make several adjustments before I got it in the right spot. Still have not replaced the sheet metal screws, but I'll get to it. They seem redundant, anyway.

If it's the auto plunger messing up dont mess with your manual plunger. Don't know if you mis-typed...

If it's your manual plunger make a mental note of where the plunger is contacting the ball. Put a ball in the shooter lane and press the plunger forward until it contacts and make a mental note. Lift the playfield, loosen the three screws until the plunger assemble can be moved. There's not a ton of play but it should be enough to get you where you need to go.

Here's the hard part. You gave to either just SWAG it into the right place, tighten, drop the playfield and check your work or drop the playfield with the plunger loose, line it up, and tighten two of the screws enough with the playfield down and sticking your arm in through the machine so that it'll stay in place while you lift and fully tighten the whole assembly. Both methods suck but shouldn't take too many tries.

All right, so I got my manual plunger working PERFECTLY. Silky smooth. But now my auto-plunger is hitting the upper left flipper 100 percent of the time.

I fixed my manual plunger by removing the right plastic and wireform and then moving the guide wall just a smudge IN towards the shooting lane (not out!).

But now I'm hitting the upper right flipper on an auto-plunge every time. I would reaaaaaaally like to not have to take all the plastic and wireform out again, is there anything I can do to the auto-plunger to fix this?

I'm 100 percent sure my playfield is level, and pitch is 7.0. I tweaked with auto plunger power but the default is max and lowering it only made it worse.

Any ideas?

trilamb : you need to step away from the game to get your thinking...
I too...had to do this because my center ramp won't go down (its Lube) crash and pick it it back up in the AM

I’m chill man! I’m actually enjoying tinkering with it and know none of these issues are serious, just new to the hobby so coming here for more experienced opinions

The auto plunger should be self centering. I think you're going to have to try it again.

You can test it without putting everything back together. Coil test the trough coil for auto, remove the balls and shut it off for manual. You can try to beat the auto plunge to test the manual but if you aren't positive it's settled in the shooter lane before hitting it you'll get bad results.

Try going into game adjustments #71 and lower that setting a bit and retry.

My auto-plunger hits the lower flipper sometimes. ONLY when it's launching balls into play for multi ball. I think it plunges before the ball is fully at rest. Since theres a steel kick out protector in the shooter lane, I might ad a bit of mylar over that to "deaden" it, so it settles quicker.

Just a theory.

I hope I don't have so many problems with my jjp potc when I get it! LOL JK
Up the Irons!!

I heard you may have trouble getting the counter-rotating disks to work properly...

Now that is funny right there!

I would think the issue would be more the ball hitting the shooter lane switch, then bouncing back up away from the auto plunger. I could be wrong, I guess I'm assuming the auto plunge is due to the switch and not on a timer off of the trough coil. This calls for scientific experimentation (when I get home tomorrow).

On my LE I've had times where the autoplunger hits the lower post or upper left flipper tip instead of making through the left loop but it's always self corrected within a few more auto-plunges and mostly is fine. Not sure if that's helpful to anyone.

A (very) minor issue. The little black pad that is on the front of the head, presumably to protect the rails when the head is lowered. One of mine keeps falling off. I used a spray-on adhesive, but it didn’t stay. Need to find a better alternative.

One of my pads was completely missing, and the other one was broken. Sent Stern an email asking for new ones. My upper left spot does not work, no obvious reason for it being dead.

okay I solved my auto-plunger issue by taking my pitch back down to 6.5 (I had it at 7.0). Back at 6.5 it works perfectly.

So to re-cap for anyone with a Premium/LE and some issues, all 3 of my issues were small and simple to fix, just a little time intensive to figure out what exactly as wrong (and stern support was able to help me with all of them on the phone - shout out to Chas and Patrick)

- Orb shot was registering on every flipper press. Just slightly bent out the sensor so it wouldn't be so sensitive
- Manual plunger was hitting the post - took out the right plastic and wireframe and moved in the metal guide just a hair
- Auto-plunger was hitting the upper flipper after I fixed the manual, when I lowered pitch to 6.5 it started working again

As I've seen these issues brought up a few times here just wanted to let new owners know what happened to me and how I fixed it. I'm brand new to this hobby and I didn't find any of these fixes particularly difficult so don't be discouraged with your new IMDN.

I'm still fighting auto-launch myself. I can tweak it to work but after a few days it always pops back up.

I thought the same thing re: left spot.

Did you try it in the flasher diagnostics?

Mine works and flashes for about .5 second when the tomb is about to open and that’s it. It should be flashing the whole time the tomb is opening in my opinion (or just on to throw some needed light on it).

You sir, are a genius! It is indeed just a flasher (that should really be put to better use, as you said). I almost didn't post this "problem" as it was so minor, but glad I did--I never woulda figured that out.

Code 1.0 is up.

Dammit! I'm just heading out the door. Can someone post the list of additions/changes???

V1.00.0 - June 6, 2018
======================
- Run to the Hills - ultra wizard mode added
- Skill Shot - added Super Secret Skill shots
- Super Slings - added a total screen when the ball ends
- Loop Jackpots - added a total screen when the ball ends / loop jackpot timer expires
- Mummy Multiball - Mummy Super Jackpots are now showing the total multiplier for level 2 jackpots not just the bullseye multiplier
- Hallowed be thy Name - decrease the final escape shot from 15M to 10M
- Fear of the Dark - right spinner will not end the lit spinner phase until 2 seconds after the last shot was made
- Trooper Locks - fixed an issue where lock would sometimes trigger when a ball is released from the Tomb to the playfield
- Two Minutes to Midnight - fixed an issue where you could be awarded the left spinner jackpot twice if it was the last shot lit
- Two Minutes to Midnight - fixed an issue where the outlane drain speech is heard when the ball saver is active
- Cyborg Multiball - added intro sound effect when mode title is displayed
- Cyborg Multiball - added audible timer to single ball play timer
- Eddie Cards - added speech for level 2 Eddie card collection
- Eddie Cards - fixed an issue where lighting the Cyborg Eddie card last would allow you to start the Number of the Beast before Cyborg Multiball
- Eddie Cards - fixed an issue if you lost to the Beast you couldn't re-light the Mummy Eddie card
- Tomb Award - the 50M point award now also awards a random level 2 Eddie card
- Sarcophagus Lock - improved sarcophagus lock handling
- Sarcophagus Lock - now unloads any balls on game startup
- Sarcophagus Lock - added instructional text to display effect
- Guardian Diverter - light show has been improved when opening / closing
- Guardian Diverter - fixed an issue where the light in the tomb passage would be dark when locking a ball in Mummy Muliball
- Guardian Diverter - door closing sound is now in sync with the mech
- Center Up / Down Ramp - when battle is lit, the ramp will now move down and back up during a ball search to free any balls
- Multiplayer - added additional Beast callout variations when "Player X - You're Up" speech happens
- RGB Beacon Light Shows - added mainplay background effect
- RGB Beacon Light Shows - added madness mode background effect
- RGB Beacon Light Shows - added skill shot awarded effect
- RGB Beacon Light Shows - all mode shots are now highlighted on the beacon with the same color that the RGB arrow was for the shot made
- RGB Beacon Light Shows - fixed an issue where the beacon background light effect was still running when completing the mode
- Playfield Validation - served balls to the shooter lane will now autoplunge when playfield is invalid after first skill shot attempt
- Audits - added all tomb award levels
- Audits - added for Number of the Beast mode
- Improved stability
- System - Updated to V2.03
- DIAG->NODE->COMM test would occasionally falsely report address collisions, this has been corrected.
- Adjustment Changes:
- 'EXTRA BALL/POWER SHOTS COMPLETE' - now allows 'NO EXTRA BALLS' as a minimum, and 5 as a maximum
- added 'LOOPS TO AWARD EXTRA BALL' - awards extra ball when loop number is met, can be set to 'NO EXTRA BALLS', defaults to 50
- added 'MODE START SCOOP SENSITIVITY' - INSTANT - (default) mode starts when scoop switch is first detected, or SETTLE - mode starts after ball settles in scoop
- added 'MADNESS MODE ENABLED' - YES - (default) Can I Play with Madness mode will play for the tomb award, or NO, you will get 15M Power Jackpot boost for the tomb award

This is awesome! Good thing I'm not on .94 still or anything....

Played a pro on location yesterday for the first time. This game had issues where a hard right orbit shot into the up post would wedge the ball between the rail and the steel up post, trapping the ball and the post from going back down. I called the "tech's" over to unstick the balls. I don't know if the left up-post is supposed to have a sleeve on it, but this one didn't and made the game un playable and unfix-able with ball search.

I was really hoping to see music volume setting reinstated.

Hardly! Looks like they were listening to us!

display effect
- Guardian Diverter - light show has been improved when opening / closing

Funny about that, I sent Keith a message and he responded that it had been tweaked some in 1.0.

Careful Gryzz, you don't want to blow a board

You should wait at least another week to make sure its green lighted!

TWD is on 1.60 Keith so its good to know we have a long ways to go on this phenomenal pin!

I got the under on 30 days. Big $ might be on 45+ though.

Just did the update on my LE...

Wow.

Best code update. Ever.

Massive improvement all around... my first impressions:

1) Pin plays so much better from a coding standpoint. Timings of everything working are improved tremendously. Example, starting a mode when shooting the underworld- modes start INSTANTLY. No delays... just starts the mode and the ball shoots back out quickly.

2) Secret skill shot... plunge right into the left outlane for a 25M skill shot.. luckily I do this all the time hahaha

3) In Fear of the Dark mode... I saw Keith Elwin walking around in a hat.. LOL

4) Light shows are improved and way more intense in some modes.. I think Aces High especially...

5) More sound effects in various shots

6) Everything actuates quicker. I can't get over that. Seems like less delays

7) Scoring is improved... scores rack up quicker than ever

Power Targets started results in an improved small light show to know its enabled

9) Animations are improved

Im sure there's plenty I missed but don't delay and update RIGHT AWAY

That's some funny shit Ice.
I totally am Ned Handleit Nextweek Von Stein.

Anyone having issues with the playfield clearcoat bulging/bubbling up around posts? I noticed it on several of my posts today while cleaning the playfield. I sent pictures to my distributor and Stern, will give them a day or two to respond. Hopefully it is isolated but based on a few other owners I know and told them to check their machines I'm guessing it isn't.

Which posts?

I saw some. I'm ok with it i have to really look hard to notice

Blarg. Well my auto-plunger is back to hitting the upper left flipper almost every time. Tried to readjust the right metal guide but doesn’t seem to matter where I put it. Not sure what else to try.

Thanks for all this info--I never see any of this cool stuff as I am too busy trying to keep the ball(s) in play...

Yeah, I get it to strike the ball correctly about 40% of the time and have given up.

Just got my Premium and after fixing a couple minor issues I do still have one issue, hoping maybe someone can give some advice before I call my distro in the morning... So every time the ball starts the Light Lock drop target drops and then goes back up 3 times, and then stays down. I figured it was just a switch issue, but it's actually an opto. So I went into the switch test, and found that the switch seems to be working perfectly fine, it only shows closed when the drop target is down. Any ideas on what might be causing that? Maybe it's just the coil firing that's vibrating it in the right way to cause it?

You'll probably have to take it apart and look. Sounds like the drop target isn't catching where it's supposed to, maybe its spring is hung on something or the plastic is misshapen or broken. Does it ever stay up? Can you manually pull it up and forward and have it stay with the game off.

I had the same problem after two days of play. What worked for me was actually twisting the assembly. It took some force until it was finally right, hopefully it holds.

Honestly, I’d be going back up in pitch (7.2-7.5 range) making sure its level, and focus more on the coil power/settings.
(Don’t get me wrong though, the adjustments to the actual mech is certainly important...)
I lowered the trough eject to almost the bare minimum so it can center the ball and diffuse the wall rattle faster during multiball starts.

Good point, I'll try the coil in the coil test menu. It does stay up, very, very occasionally... maybe once out of 50 times. If I manually push it up, it stays up fine.

How do you do this? Is this a software or hardware change?