I think you may be having the same problem I was. Shawn at PB support was able to help me with it. In my case, I think the elevator was sitting weird and was binding up against something when the coil tried to push the elevator up. I was on a video call with Shawn and he had me manually lift up on the elevator when the multiball was supposed to start. The elevator came up under the coil's power with the extra help from me, and has been working fine by itself after that. I believe he mentioned potentially using some white lithium grease on the moving parts if it started acting up again, but I haven't had to worry about it. There is also a coil strength setting (it is "left post" or something like that). Originally Shawn had me increase it to the max (I think +50%), but that by itself wasn't helping me, but it's something you could try. I've since lowered the coil to +5%, but I'm pretty sure I could set it back to default and it would still work.

You might also try performing a coil test and seeing if the elevator pops up during that, just to see what happens, but I wouldn't call that determinative.

By the way, I originally was thinking it was a software issue too.

Hang in there. I know it's super frustrating. However, I also have nothing but good things to say about PB support. I gotten help from Andrea and Shawn and they have both been great. I had a few issues with my LV, but PB was able to get them all resolved pretty promptly. Working great now and it's up there with ACNC in terms of my favorite pins.