Turn the machine off.

Follow CN6 from the center top of the CPU in the backbox (Node 0, page 24-25 in the manual) to the backbox LCD and see if there are any connection problems at either end. Reseat the connectors. Also look at CN14 for the LCD backlight, which is the small 5-pin connector immediately to the left of CN6, and follow it to the LCD display, reseating the connectors.

Also make sure that the ground connection is still good - it's on the right side of the LCD screen.

Turn machine on and see if it works.

Also look at:
https://sternpinball.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/SPIKE-System-Manual.pdf

Finally, this thread is pretty stale. Try posting in

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-star-wars-clubmay-the-force-be-with-you

or maybe in the general tech repair forum. Likely this has come up on Spike 2 games before and someone has provided a likely solution.

-Adam

Adaminski hello! Thank you for the response. The issue ended up being a faulty backlight in my LCD screen so replace the screen ended up doing the trick. Here is a link to the resolved thread in case anyone runs into a similar issue in the future: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/star-wars-comic-premium-lcd-screen-is-blank#post-7488065

All, I had posted a while back regarding some strange issues with my new SW premium, it was auto launching at times without letting you select character or mission. Feedback indicated likely a switch issue, something on the playfield making contact thus initiating the game immediately. I ran many switch tests and looked everywhere for what could be the cause. I never found the fault. I contacted Stern & one of their techs was assisting me, but then suddenly it never did it again & after a couple weeks of playing every other day or so without issue, I let it go, assuming it may have been a switch making contact that self adjusted with play. Regardless, it seemed to not be an issue. Until tonight!
I have some new info & hoping someone may have experienced this and point me to a potential cause. Aside from auto launching occasionally tonight (Sometimes at age start, sometimes 2nd player, sometimes on ball 2 or 3). During multiplayer, often the 2nd player could not select a character, but it didn't auto launch. Most interesting though is I am now noticing that when the game starts there are already points !! And it's a different amount of points each time, like 4 million & change or 5 million & change, etc. I investigated a bit and the points immediately show up when the ball rolls over the switch in the shooter lane.
It also happens occasionally on ball 2 or ball 3 during a game (points will be added to your total as soon as the ball hits the rollover switch) !?!?
Example; I just drained ball 2 playing Luke, for ball 3 I selected "light tatoine missions", I had 149,450,320 points - as soon as I launched ball 3 and the ball hit the rollover switch, boom, I suddenly had 239 million and change - what the ?!?!
appreciate any assistance or advice, I will contact STERN again, but I anticipate all of these issues are related to the same root cause, I just need help finding it
thanks!

Sorry I have not much feedback other than what I said before.

Do you have a shaker? Does the problem occur any less frequently with the shaker off? Is the software up to date? Did you poke around the action button on top of the lockdown bar? Pull off the lockdown bar, and make sure contacts are good, there is no dirt, the switch actuates when you manually push down on that leaf switch.

Also, this is a pretty stale thread. Since the issue is the same whether Pro/Premium/LE, if you haven't already, I would post in this thread:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-star-wars-clubmay-the-force-be-with-you

Or maybe in this forum:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/forum/tech-lcd-era

Or even ask in a Facebook group for repair help. I personally don't care for the Facebook groups for repair help because the information is fleeting, and very difficult to search for and reference back to unless one bookmarks a post in their profile. But, some knowledgable people do frequent the groups and may be able to point you in the right direction.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/609432482409545

Good luck.

thanks, yes I posted the same on the owners thread.

This is a brand new machine, so everything appears correct, switches all look good, all spaced well, switch test all pass, and I cannot get anything to close by pounding on playfield during switch test.

Yet, once about every 10 games, the game will auto launch past the select screens and auto plunge the ball, really strange.

I am working with a tech at Stern, so Im sure we will figure it out, appreciate your comments. I was just anticipating someone with a SW would have seen/had this same issue.

Im also trying to confirm that the points being assigned immediately when selecting "light xxxx missions" on the path screen is normal, not an issue

its a bit strange trying to figure out how it assigns points, but it does the same thing when you qualify the planet by hitting the 3 shots on the playfield too

Question for the group on realigning the flippers. Less about about how to realign and more a concern on much torque to put on the set screw. My left flipper is slightly below the guide hole (~ 1/16 or less). The cap/screw is super tight. I’m afraid of over muscling it and hulk smashing my way into to a new problem. I’ve read this is normal and that when retightening, it needs to be really tight to prevent slippage. Anyone have advice on how to loosen this screw safely as possible? Thanks!

Kind of a loaded question here. If someone tells you how to proceed and you then break something, whose fault is that? Having said that, I suggest using a socket to loosen or tighten the flipper set screws.

The fault would lie with the person turning the socket which would be me. Thank you the info!

Maybe language barrier, but what do you mean by socket in this context?

An appropriate size socket wrench rather than a screwdriver. I think it's 1/4 or 3/16. Quarter inch drive.

Strange, I would have never gotten the idea to use anything else... Thanks

Hi guys!

2021 build. Turned on today and the led screen on the playfield is not displaying. Any ideas?

Happy new year!

20231231_122741 (resized).jpg

I had the very same problem with my first run Premium after about a year in. Check the HDMI connection on both the screen, and in the backbox. Mine ended up being a faulty HDMI connector where the playfield screen connects to the backbox (ppper right corner next to the SD card on the main board). It was loose. Wiggling it was a temporary fix I eventually replaced it.

Awesome thanks!

After playing it a couple times, it definitely seems like a loose connection. Now I have a better idea on where to look.

Millennium falcon is not looking bright!

Anyone swap out theirs with the Mezelmod version? Is this normal lighting from it, or do I have burnt out bulbs?

Thanks!

20240110_145230 (resized).jpg

It ended up being the HDMI running from the LCD screen to the female/female adapter. We just ran 1 cable straight to the board.

I recently picked up a nice SWLE and I just noticed a weird playfield anomaly
The triangular clear inserts all appear to be slightly off-centre
Not noticeable when game is on and inserts are lit
All the inserts are nice and tight, so no issues there
Was this a normal occurrence with early run SW machines?

92F0F5C6-C454-4EA1-8279-123280BD0AE3 (resized).jpeg

Compared to my SW Premium (late 2017 early 2018) the triangle inserts boarder size is different.
SwIn (resized).jpg

That’s interesting, I’m guessing this was something brought to Sterns attention and they corrected it with that graphic alteration for later runs
Probably an Le only related issue then

A bit more research and I’ve noticed these same alignment patterns on original run Batman 66 too
It appears that the main reason they modified the black outlines to be thinker on later run SW and BM66 was to cover up any ‘ghosting’ that could appear

AC1CA149-A2ED-48E3-B6B2-F5FCC858FB37 (resized).jpeg

Just doing some maintenance on my SWLe, and noticed during accelerator test, that as I launch balls into the Hyperloop, that on each pass the individual Optos 50,51,52,53 may not all always trigger
The balls seem to have enough momentum to continue (4 being the max, I can get up there)
Just wondering if this is normal opto behaviour due to the speed of the balls passing through
Cheers

82F8C0EA-A3B7-4118-95B1-779D1049E5AA (resized).jpeg

Yep, same here. When using the accelerator test not all the optos trigger. It might be speed related, just a guess but the game might calculate how fast the ball returned into the Death Star and then activates the optimum amount of magnets to accelerate the ball for another loop.

But it would be nice to get more owners confirming this just to be sure as it's definitely something that's going to be brought up as players tinker with the accelerator in the coming years.

If it does work as I'm guessing, it would be ideal to have a setting to very slightly increase the speed of the accelerator. I've noticed while in game there are times when the accelerator works perfectly even with multiple balls in it and other times it has trouble with the very last loop of a ball, instead of exiting the exit diverter it's unable to make it around to the first accelerator just behind the Death Star and rolls down the left loop. So it would be nice to just give the accelerator a tad more juice to get it to run perfectly, especially for that last loop.

Sometimes it seems weak when multiple balls are in there. I have had it peter out and the balls wind up colliding and fall out at the bottom. I would like to have it fire as fast as possible. No adjustments that I can see regarding this.