I have a new Rush Premium (latest SW 0.97) that is giving points at the start just after the ball is ejected and from pressing a flipper, before the ball is plunged. This send you immediately into whatever song was chosen (ie, you don't get to choose). It gives 75,030 points as the ball is ejected from the trough and enters the plunger lane. Then 150,120 is added with one flipper press, then 225,060 is added with another flipper press. No further points are added until the ball is actually plunged into play.

I added some more details below, but I feel like I've seen this question before and just need to know where to look. Seems like a problem that can happen to any newish stern.

I unboxed it today (Friday), and we played several games with SW 0.93 with no problem. I installed a Stern shaker and the Pinball Life headphone jack/volume control accessory, updated to SW 0.97, tested, and moved machine into place. I am unsure exactly when the problem started. It could have been there immediately after installing the accessories and updating the SW, and I was just so happy that the shaker & headphone worked that I didn't notice the problem.

In order to debug, I disconnected the shaker and headphone jack, looked at a bunch of connections, manually tested a lot of switches, and looked for errors in the test report (none). *Very* infrequently it will work on the 1st ball, but then balls 2 and 3 have the problem described above.

I suspected that I caused a wire short either when I installed the shaker or dressed the headphone cable to the backbox, but cannot find anything. Maybe something has just come loose or some wire insulation got rubbed away? Any hints as to where to look?

Thanks. Sadly, the errant switches only get triggered when you start a game. In any of the switch test modes, when you close the door and press the start button, a game doesn't start. It just tells you that the start button was pressed.

Is there a way to have the switch test active while starting a game?

Thanks for the suggestions.

These two switches were closed in switch test mode, and I figured that at least 56 should be open (not activated):

56 Center Ramp Opto (called "Lift Ramp Opto" on the switch test screen)
53 Spinner opto

The center ramp opto is easy to activate by wiggling the center ramp in the down position. It never activated by wiggling the ramp in the up position. Using a card I could tell that the opto was lined up pretty well.

The wires coming off the left opto were bunched together tightly by a zip tie. I separated them in the zip tie and gave them better ability to flex, and the game now works. There are no points scored as the ball enters the plunger lane and I can select songs. I expect I may have to fix this better when I have more time, but for now it seems to work OK. We have friends coming over in a couple hours and I want to be able to play Rush!

The spinner opto is not causing a problem with game functionality. It is nominally closed on my machine, but does trigger "hits" as the spinner rotates. I've asked in the Rush owners topic if someone could let me know the correct default state of the spinner opto.

Rush Center Ramp left opto wires (resized).jpg