Hello,

I am having an issue with a Stargate. I apologize if this issue was covered before but I did a search and couldn't find any reference to this.

When I start a new game, sometimes the ball will launch by itself. I believe this is tied to a multiball mode starting on it's own, so it seems that sometimes the machine will think it is in multiball and autolaunch the ball.

I figured this was a switch issue, I tested the switches in the switch test menu and the only active switches are the two ball trough ones, the rollover target switch, and the tournament switch. I tested the rest of the switches manually and cleaned off the opto switches, but I am still experiencing this problem.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Rob

Yes, I believe so.

I figured out the problem in case anyone else runs into this. There are 4 balls in the trough.. 3 in the right half and one in the outhole on the left side. When you start a ball, it kicks one into the shooter lane and then shoots the ball resting in the outhole to meet up with the other two in the right half. At least that is what is supposed to happen.

What was going on is it would kick the ball out into the shooter lane, and attempt to kick the ball in the outhole up with the other two balls on the right side of the trough. Every now and then, it would bounce back into the outhole instead of staying up with the other two. This must tell the machine that the ball that is supposed to be in play had drained.. even though it was still in the shooter lane. So now, it would auto launch the one in the shooter lane... and this results in all kinds of strange game behavior.

I removed the apron and found a little wire gate that is supposed to separate the 3 balls on the right side of the trough from the one on the left side. I figured this wire gate must be bent out of whack which would sometimes prevent the outhole ball from passing through and staying on the right side of the trough. So I bent the wire gate a bit and put everything back together. Now the outhole ball stays on the right side of the trough with the other two balls and doesn't bounce back into the outhole. This has resolved the problem of the ball in the shooter lane autolaunching and causing havoc.

Regards,

Robert