No idea what may have gone wrong. You'll get some good suggestions here.

I'd call Stern tech support tomorrow 1-800-kickers and run it by them.

LTG : )™

You're not the first to drop a playfield into the cab. I can say that it's only happened to me once fortunately.
In my case, I think I just pulled it too far forward but honestly, I don't even recall.
Don't feel too bad.

Take pics of sliders and make sure your retaining pegs did not come off. Take a look inside cabinet through coin door with a flash light and inspect every corner and see if there are any screws or hardware sitting in bottom of cab and report back, if you need pics of what I am talking about I will post them

Not that familiar with Spike, but I've been working on Sterns and B/W for years. If all switches are out you could have a large connector loose in the bottom of the cab that connects the playfield to the backbox. It could also be a board problem, but for your sake I hope not.

give me 3 minutes, I am on it.

It's been 4 minutes. ......just sayin

Check these trouble shooting questions post back with findings. Did you find any loose nuts or bolts inside cab? Are the bolts holding sliders tight? Do you have 3 carriage bolts on both sides (6 total 3 on each side) of the cabinet firmly in place that hold play field and the brackets? Check to see if your brackets are reversed if they are they will NOT look like the last picture here as you can see mine is "L" shaped acting as a stopper the back end of bracket is just a little bump/hill (last pic is of play field down). Report back on findings and let me know if any of your pics do not look like mine.

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Just make sure the connectors are all seated properly on the node boards under the playfield.

Good points, but lets make sure your pin is first structurally sound and is able to support the play field.

look on the sides go your play field is there a large gap on either side? Are your slide rails on play field all the way to the edge of wood on play field? Are there any gaps in-between where cab box and back lower panel of pin box are. Does it look like if you were to push the play field all the war to right or left you would have a noticeable gap? We gotta figure out why your play field fell in box first so it does not happen again.

Bill validator, and not the problem with your game. Sorry.

LTG : )™

take some pics of your slider brackets

Take off the backglass and see if any of the connectors came loose. If the playfield fell into the cabinet it may have tugged on the wiring harness feed into the backbox.

Oh this is a Spike system, probably a connector under the playfield.

Switches really sound like a loose/disconnected connector - I wouldnt get too concerned just yet. Have you looked inside the Backbox?

I've had a Stern PF drop inside the cab also - was my first Stern after only Williams so didnt know how the mechanism was different. There was no damage, so you should be fine.

This happened to a local KISS LE owner, too. Shortly after the playfield fell into the cabinet we used the game in a tournament and realized the tilt wasn't working, then realized a few others weren't working either. Upon closer inspection, a wire over by the tilt had been sheared off by the playfield when it fell. Soldered the wire back together and all was well. I'm guessing something similar happened here.

My question is, what did Stern change about the mounting/rails to make it so easy for these playfields to flop into the cabinet? The guy who owns the one I mentioned is an experienced collector and operator and has pulled out many playfields over the years without incident.

I am sorry you have problems.

You will get through it.

LTG : )™

Nonsense. This is how you learn. It's all going to be fine.

Experience only comes with.....well......experience. This is really the only way you'll learn.

And your game is still under warranty. Stern & or your distributor will help you resolve the issues.

Was the game turned on when the playfield fell into the cab?

Big toy like a pinball machine has many benefits - fun to play, and teaches you heaps about electrical/mechanical thingys. Here is the place to learn. Sometimes it's best to get someone nearby to pop over, or Skype someone for advice and a look through. Pretty much everything is fixable, and usually easily. Diagnosis is the only trick but, and that comes with experience. A tech will do it for you, but cost you, or use the font of knowledge here.

Notorious and long standing issue with DE/Sega/Stern games. It is not a new thing, and OP is not the first or last person it will happen to.

A lot of people have dropped the playfield into the cabinet with their first Stern. Those little brackets don't have a catch but instead only have that little hump to indicate to stop pulling the playfield forward. If you pull beyond the end hump the playfield falls in.

Don't get discouraged. We all had to start somewhere in the learning process. I am sure with the help of Stern phone/tech support and some helpful Pinsiders you will be guided through getting everything up and running again.

For starters, there are videos about how to lift the playfield properly.

www.youtube.com/watch?t=2&v=RgjnQOQHEqQ

Here is a video on how to test the game in the menu:

For the game not working issue, the first thing I would check is the fuses.

I agree 100% with this!!! I had never done it before a with a williams but did it with ACDC pretty quickly. It was fine in the end. I do think all you are dealing with switch wise is a loose connection.

PM me with your number and I will FaceTime you when you are off of work. I will try to get you up and running tonight if you have time.

Yep - I have to put my hand up. I have also dropped a stern PF into cab wtf. It was my first Stern, I was used to Bally mech where it's nearly impossible to accidentally drop PF. Not sure if I had PF to far forward or not straight when lifting up. Now knowing what to look for I have not done it again...I'm sure you will be ok to. Good luck with switch prob, hope you get it sorted soon.

I dropped my playfield on the first machine I owned. Live and learn. Some day you'll be telling a future pinsider the same thing.

Ha! Someday you will.

I made a post similar to yours about nine years ago on RGP. Good guys like many in this thread came to my rescue. Some skinned knuckles, splattered solder and missing tools later, I can now give advice. You will too I hope if you choose to give back to the community.

And the great thing is, I'm still learning as there are some very smart and creative people here.

You may find in time that playing a game will become secondary to wrenching on a machine. So don't be concerned that you may have done some secret, un-seen permanent damage to your machine. You haven't, everything is repairable and often times improved upon.

You dropped the playfield, I say good for you. Years ago while bent halfway over into my cabinet vacuuming broken glass, a sudden gust of wind caused the playfield to fall on top of me.

Lessons learned: Don't work in the driveway on certain days and make up a good excuse for that bleeding cut on your head.

You live in Cleveland? There must be dozens of fellow pinsiders / others that can help out nearby..

Click on the Pinside map here.. there's a 100 in your area.. someone can walk you thru checking your machine

That sounds like you were expecting something like a 90s game where the playfield was on mechs that would click into position, and then go up. I love lifting my Getaway playfield because it does that. Pick up and slide, snap, and then up. Those were the days.

I've dropped a playfield into the cabinet before. Now I know to be careful going forward. But its defiantly a shitty feeling when it happens. good luck with your repair. I'm sure stern will straighten it out. Keep us posted I'm interested to hear what it ends up being.

I've had this happen before. Ouch.

The underside of a playfield really hurts.

DE when the playfield falls it takes out the flipper driver board in the lower left of the cab

Don't give up, you, pinside & Stern will get your pin up and running

Don't worry about damage from the playfield dropping into the cabinet. Don't focus on that anymore. You simply pulled it out too far. Rather then needing a pro to lift the playfield in the future, simply learn from that.

It's almost worthless to lift the playfield with the machine off anyway. Especially if you're diagnosing a switch issue.

Stern has good support. If you can't call them due to work then send an email at least. Most of us haven't worked on spike enough to help because the two spike games aren't hugely popular. I think this would change after got is out.

glad you got it squared away! Enjoy

Sweet bro...all good lessons to learn......now take a day off and play the sh#t out of that thing... .............Joey

Good news - nothing like a good code update to fix the worlds' woes. Enjoy your game!