I mean it worked for mine and I was having the exact issue you were having so its worth a try ? What do you have to lose lol

Its very odd that it works with another rom so you know its working lol. Like I said it was worth a try and my dm did the same exact same thing from switching from demo time to original.

Go to tests in your game menu, then go to T.16 test claw, the 3rd option is run elevator, on the right hand side of the display there are 2 options elev. index, and elev. hold. Make sure you push the 2 white buttons on the inside of the cabinet in before you run the test, or it will due nothing. I want to see if both sets of opto's are registering, they will put an X in the box each time the elevator goes up and down.

If these are working, the next thing I would try would be to put the new rom in (which I figure it is in), pull the battery's unplug the game for 15 min or so to wipe everything out, then put the batteries back in, plug it in and see if that helps. The coding in that rom could have bypassed the opto's on the elevator and just made the magnet go everytime it go to the ball... Just a theory as I know nothing about code.

Ok, but can you run the test and have the elevator keep going up and down, just hold the run test button.. You may have some dirty opto's here

The elevator should keep going up and down, and the x will appear when the elevator is at the top and when it is at the bottom.

Yes, when you run the elevator you see on the right hand side of the screen and elev index and a elev hold. As that elevator is going up and down they should be going x and x in the boxes as the elevator goes up and down. If you hold the button down the start the test, the elevator will keep going up and down

No, sorry if you read it that way... only 1 should be x-ed out.. As the elevator goes up and down, you should see them both blank for certain periods, and up should x out 1 and down should x out the other....... As I had mentioned before, hold down the run elevator button and let the elevator go up and down several times, and as it goes up and down you should see an x on the top and then an x on the bottom, but it should never have both on.. There are 2 sets of opto's on this game, one at the top of the elevator and one under the elevator.

If you are seeing both working when you run the elevator, then you know the optos are good. If that is the case, I have only one idea left for you to try...

If it was a board/mechanical/opto issue it wouldn't run with the demo time ROM. I'm stumped also.

Butch, my last thought is a bad driver transistor... now the reason I am thinking this might be possible, when the demotime code was written, it is possible that it was set up to use a different drive transistor.. I was also thinking that code might have been written to bypass the opto's on the elevator, which is why I wanted him to check those out.

What I was going to do was look up the drive transistor specifically for that magnet coil, and have him put an alligator wire clip to the transistor and touch the other end to a ground, while having a ball right near the magnet, to see if that triggers the magnet... it is the only thing I can possibly think of at this point.

How did you make out running the elevator?

The drive transistor is Q2

Q2 is located on the Aux driver board, it is a 2n4403, however this style cannot be tested the way I was thinking. Butch, if your reading this, how would he go about testing Q2? At this point, I would personally just change it.

The board is a small board to the far right it is an aux driver board, a-16100-2

Ok, there is something flaky with those opto's. First thing to do, take off the glass, look inside the elevator, you will see the 2 opto's at the top, get a q-tip and clean both of them.

The other opto's are only accessible from the bottom of the playfield. you will see a connector going to a board on the elevator, see if you can unplug it, and plug it back in, if the elevator is UP and you look at it from the correct angle, you can see the 2 opto's that the connector is connected to, these are different opto's they are black and look like a u only not curved at the bottom, if you take another q tip, you can get inside of them and clean those as well, windex or rubbing alcohol will work for the cleaning, just wet the tip of the q tip.

If you want to pre test the top opto's put the game in switch test, make sure the elevator is down, and just by putting your finger in the elevator shaft should break the beam and show up on the dmd.

Hold should NOT be solid the entire time, just when the elevator is at the top.

The speakers would not. Try the opto thing I just posted, there is an issue there, that hold should NOT be locked on like that.

I think your bottom opto's are fine, when you turn the game on and the claw does it thing, then go into test mode, neither is x'ed out. The index is the bottom opto board, the hold are the 2 optos on the top, I think your problem is there.

Ok, so how about when you run the elevator test. Does it still say x on the hold indicator the whole time? Were you able to get to the black one?

Ok, I understand.. Well, if the elevator opto's are working, the only think left I can think of is the Aux driver board I mentioned earlier. It is possible the Demotime software used a different driver to run the magnet, I honestly cannot think of anything else. The top upper right corner there is a small board, I mentioned the number in a previous post. I can only guess something is wrong with that board or just the Q2 that drives it... It is a tiny black cap with 3 legs on it and on the circuit board it is labeled Q2. You could email the guy who wrote that code and ask him if he is aware of any driver differences with the code he wrote. Last thing you could try, unplug each connector to that board, and plug them right back in.. sometimes over time connectors need that, I would also reseat all the ribbon cables, or if they are originals replace them.. I just cannot think of anything else other than that Q2.

Hope you figure it out, I thought we had a shot with the elevator opto's, but guess that is not the case.

I don't do board work. I give it to my buddy Rick. He keeps trying to teach me but it hasn't stuck yet.

I sold the OP the game with Demotime on it. I never had the original ROMs in it. Demotime was supposed to be better and I didn't want to bend anything, & the game was working correctly with it in there.

James, I sent you an email, if you can get me the board, I can have my buddy look at that transistor for you.

I think that is the best way, is to have that board checked, Like I had said, this is just a theory, I know NOTHING about coding, so I have no idea whether or not changes were made in that code for the operation of the magnet, but at this point I cannot think of anything else, the part that throws me is that it works with demo time code.. Which is why I am thinking something in that code may have used a different driver. Do you happen to know anyone in the area with a demo man who would let you bring that one board over and try it in their game?

I was hoping my JD would have the same board to test in it, but it doesn't. K's arcade has it in stock for $40. https://ksarcade.net/rottendog-8-driver-for-wpc-a-16100-01-wdb008.html

I was hoping someone else would chime in on what the problem might be. Not that Steve is wrong, but it's the only theory that we have at the moment and I hate throwing money at stuff without being sure it's going to work.

But, if you want to take a shot on that & it doesn't work, I would buy the new board from you. Or my offer stands on sending me the board in the machine to have my buddy test it.

There probably is, but I'm the wrong guy to tell you how..

Same here, not the right guy.. BUT I do have a Demo man here, so if you wanted to send it to me to test it, I can do that for you. If it is the driver transistor I can swap that out.

Thats bc the lx4 dont have the patch put in. I had a lx4 with patch put in and it had no ghosting. Any pin before 95 I get a patched rom put in and it makes such a big difference.

I have the home rom in my game and I have no issues with ghosting at all. You had mentioned 9 roms for sound, I would try ordering the home rom from John W. Cost is low enough, and you can disable the adult language in the settings. And who knows, maybe it will fix the claw at the same time.. cheap enough that it is worth a shot.

Just another CPU rom, not all the sound roms.. Just email John and mention you want the HOME rom for Demo man. In the adjustments you can turn off adult language, also I have NO ghosting with that rom. Try that first, if it does not fix the claw, as I mentioned you can send me the board to test it, before you lay out the money for a new board.

Try the home rom from John first. Send the driver board to Bob or myself.. Personally I would rather know the board is bad than to spend the money on another board to find out the board is not bad...

I'll be there if that's what you want to do. I would feel more confident about spending the $40 if someone else had chimed in about that potentially being the problem. But it doesn't seem like there's too many other options that you haven't tried. Like I said, if it doesn't work I would buy the board from you or I'm sure someone here would be interested. Never hurts to have extra boards around.