Quoted from per3per3:I'm experiencing an issue with the lock mechanism on my AIQ Premium and hoping someone perhaps has encountered and resolved this. Periodically, it seems like when one or more balls are locked in the portal lock and I'm about to start a mode, nothing happens until the machine eventually goes into ball search. I noticed that the ball closest to being ejected in the portal lock is sitting in the lock about a inch or more in front of the opto for that position. In those instances, if there are other balls also locked in the portal lock, they are in the correct position. I think the machine is losing that front ball's position which is causing the issue, but I'm not sure how I could adjust the lock mech to fix this.
Initially I had maybe thought the problem was related to the ball trough but after noticing the issue inside of the portal lock I'm pretty sure that's the source of this issue.
Would appreciate some help...please and thank you!
This sounds like one of your ball walker fingers isn't keeping the ball within the opto beam, common problem. After having a couple of ball walkers fail in use, I had to remove it and disable it in the adjustments menu. When that ball walker breaks, all the balls will eventually end up in the portal subway and the game is not playable. This is unacceptable for a game on location. If you want to fix the ball walker yourself, there are several posts throughout this thread that detail some owner mods that might work for you.
Stern eventually sent me another ball walker replacement and rather than reinstall it and wait for it to break again, it now sits in the bottom of the cabinet. If the next owner wants to add it back, more power to him. Personally, I think the game plays better without it.