No, it wasn't.

Just trying to help here.
I'm confused because you said you removed it after nothing was working.
You updated to .96, removed the thumb drive, and then played games successfully right?
Then the game failed?
Then you tried reinstalling .96 with the thumb drive again?

When I tried to restart, nothing worked, so I open the backbox and put the flash drive and well, it didn't do anything.

Yes, I installed 0.96 Yesterday, and remove the flash drive. I played a few games and everything was fine. I played about 6 games today and on the last game the game crashed. It did look like a computer crashing and got a few weird screens before everything shut off within probably 8 seconds. The LEDS turned off first together with the monitor, and the flippers followed a few seconds later.

Ok. That sucks.
I would definitely try flashing another 16gb SD card from Stern and try it again.
Follow their instructions carefully.

https://sternpinball.com/support/sd-cards/

Good luck

And check all wired connections in the head!

Thanks, I only have 32gb cards, I did flash a new card and it didn't work. I will be calling Stern Monday. Thanks for your time!

32 is fine

Thanks that definitely helped me find the connection. How did you thread the LED's back into their slots? I was able to get the left one through but the angle is a bit awkward trying to get the rightmost LED into its position edit: finally got it by laying on my back eye level with a flashlight and jamming it through

It looks awesome its even bright when I have the blinds open

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Here are some Detail Photos ( from Upside )
So the Balls on the right Side change to the left side and hit the Metal Ramp clearly ....

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Great idea! Makes sense.

Sorry I couldn't help you with the LED thing; it was one of those days when you're just stuck outside working and the day gets away from you. Glad you figured things out!

Very clever.

I may try the same.

Me too. So that I’m clear, this is simply a diverter mechanism applied to the right side of the ramp at the top, before the turn toward the TK mech area, correct? Pics are a little tough to tell where and what we are looking at. As I understand it, the idea is to guide the ball to the left hand side of the ramp as it goes around the bend. Seems like a spare ramp flap and a square of blues foam would do the trick.

Sorry if this is stupid but I just don’t understand. Where should the ball go when it lands in this saucer? Should it launch into drop targets? Or should it launch into a loop? Mine just launches stupidly into the side of the right ramp and does nothing.

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Thanks Chuckwurt. I’m still unable to get the damn thing aligned to ever land a shot in demo mouth. I’ve had this LE for 6 months and it’s made me not want to even play it because I feel like I can never dial it in. Anyone want to buy number 67 of the LEs? I’ll just play my guardians.

I kinda do

This work ok ,I used thin plastic don’t need metal,
Thanks pitfall
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I checked the node boards under the playfield and a little red light turns on on both but on the
main board behind the backbox the VA and VNB light do not turn on.
Any ideas on what this could be? First picture is my machine, second image is for reference.

I don't see these lights on on my machine.... Any ideas Chuck? Thanks! second pic is for reference.

Closer Look of Mainboard (resized).jpg

Reference Picture (resized).png

I've now gone back to the original ramp on my machine. I just could not get the new ramp to sit flat against the playfield. The old ramp is perfect in that regard. I'm now near 100% with the left flipper cradled while the machine is fresh. To make the shot I have to have my flippers set to near 255 and once they start dropping off due to heat the shot becomes unmakeable. I'm going to try removing the front post to see if the demo leans forward at all. Hoping that will help. Might also try reducing the spacers by another mm. That definitely will require the post to be removed as the demo is sitting on it now 2mm down.

I also sent some info about the opto issues I am seeing. I have checked and double checked in switch test mode and have seen nothing out of the ordinary. I've seen these strange occurances though

1. Sometimes the up post will drop before the ball gets to the post usually while it's still under the demo. The leads to hearing the up post pop 2 times. I'm not sure what opto causes the up post to drop. I thought it was the one right next to the post but the ball is no where near it when it goes off the first time.
2. Sometimes the opto under the demogorgon does not register at all and I will be rewarded the mystery shot instead of completing the word or starting demo mode. I think this usually happens when there is a video in the process of playing and I shoot under the demo.
3. Sometimes the opto under the demogorgon seems to register twice so I'll either get a completed word or completion and start of demo mode.

This is on my PRO. Is anyone else seeing anything like this?

I have video of the 1 and 2 and I'm working on 3 to send to Stern. It really does feel like a code/timing issue since there are 4 optos involved in that area but if no one else is seeing it then it may be an issue with my machine.

What does Stern say?

They haven't reply about what VA and VNB mean, I figure VNB is the node boards.
Stern told me to try a new SD card at first. I told them I tried 2 new ones and none work. They are sending me a new CPU. I just had to contact my distributor.
Thank you for your advice and all the help.

I do have this one happen on my premium occassionally

I have a pro, have had it since launch; zero issues...If I miss the shot, it's all because I missed the shot. I never have to mess with flipper power or any of that.

You're welcome. Good luck. Keep us posted. I'm curious

Took that post out that keeps the demo from coming forward and now I can hit it with the right flipper as well. Not sure why they have that there. If this maintains it'll be awesome. I've have never once hit the demo from the right flipper cradle on my machine. Of course for some reason I'm also way more accurate when I have the glass off so we'll see how I do now that the glass is back on Seems my aim always goes off once I get into the game.

Thanks for the confirmation on the up post double hitting sometimes. Glad that one is not just me. I did double check all connections while I had the playfield up and everything was nice and tight. Once I get some videos to Stern I'll let you all know what I hear on those other two issues.

you are definitely one of the lucky ones.

Did you remove the screw completely? I left it there, because the screw is shorter then the post that was on it. So it shouldn't lean too far forward.

I removed it completely. So far I've had no hangups. The ball is able to move the head out of the way. First thing I tested. I went away from the flipper rubber fix because that caused lots of hangups. I made the screws that the spacers go in very tight.

My first game with the fixes. Managed to hit the demo almost all modes and got to total isolation once. Got 150 mil on that last demo modes. Got the super twice once off left flipper and once off right. So much fun.

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Yeah, once the demo hits were correct it added a lot more to the game. I just completed trap 'em 3 times!

I think you just play until you run it down to 1 ball. That's what Brian indicated. Basically, make the Demo shots collect jackpots, repeat until the mode ends when you only have 1 ball left.

You kill demo 2 times, then shoot all red shots and it starts over. So yeah, do this til your down to 1 ball.

Increasing your flipper power will not help with the demegorgan shot. In fact it will make it worst. My suggestion is put everything stock on your game and play it not expecting to be this awsome pinball player where you think you should make the shot 100% of the time. You guys are hacking up your game, the shot was not meant to be easy. You need to cradle the ball and aim to make it, a random shot is pretty much luck.

And yes its easier to make it with the left flipper, that's the way it is, deal with it.

One pinsider just said that he is going back to the old ramp from the replacement ramp stern just sent him. So if it's not the ramp than what's the problem? Maybe just have stern send out a new playfield, maybe that will fix the problem.

Haha, ok. It is not an easy shot. You still have to aim it well to get it in. It's meant to be tough but makeable. A good player should be able to hit it multiple times in a single game. In fact it's required and expected. Mine was not makeable and it's my machine so if I want it to be fun for my family I will make it so. Even still I don't think I've done anything outside of tune the shot for where the slomo video was showing the ball to hit. Stern even admitted there was a problem with our machines and I waited 6 months and I got another bad ramp. So I engineered my own fix. Now the game is more fun.

You are also not meant to adjust the kickout to go up the burn it back loop but many are. I don't have mine setup that way.

Hi all. Is there an easy way to clean these? Both a solution to use and how to keep the drop targets from falling as soon as you touch to clean them?

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Thank you

Did you ever find a solution for the ramp digging into the Mylar. Mine is doing the same wondering if it’s normal or not.

No I did not. My replacement ramp was not flat to the playfield so no adjustment would make it work. The lip that it created made the ball go all over the place. Stern said to try small changes to the switch but that didn't do much.

My old ramp never dug in and since the new ramp was not flat to the playfield I have gone back to the old one. I actually need to undo the adjustment I had done for the new one as it's now digging in as well where it didn't use to. I now have a line on my playfield from the new ramp that won't ever go away after only a week with it on . I even made the adjustment to not have the ramp down in attract mode.

Just starting to formulate some new strategies. It's a completely different game from what I've been playing for 7 months. I'm finding I really like to break up the demo modes with the season modes especially to get that extra ball. The final demodog mode is ok but I'd kinda like it to be a 2 ball multiball.

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Sorry for the double post. Not sure how that happened. Wish I could delete it

It's good to see some strategy talk outside of mechanical talk! I always play the modes first and go for the extra ball. I always tried to combine the demodog modes with TK multi-ball based on a stream from Chuck early on in the game code. I'm not sure if that's still a good strategy or not. Lol. The demogorgon modes annoy me sometimes. I wish it had like a 25 million bonus for getting it in the demo.

I've been trying really hard to get mystery these days because of all the b*******. Lol.