I have a lord of the rings that likes to go into a reset loop.

During game play or just simply in its rest mode. The game will start to restart, and get stuck in a loop. The bootup will only get about half way through the process and do it again and again. Watching the LED's on the boards the only light that continues to have power is the 5V on the I/O board.

Its almost as if a connector is coming loose, but I don't get it because I cant seem to replicate the error. The simple acts of taking out the back glass or moving the playfield into service position has fixed it - but not every time.

However, what baffles me is the fact that I can't replicate it. Shaking the heck out of the game does not start the issue, nor does the shaker going at full speed. It will be sitting and then bam it goes. I also did a burn in test for 12 minutes - nothing.

Any ideas? Thanks all.

Thanks LTG - I did that last night, with the exception of the socketed parts. The problem went away but it has done that before. The power cord is secure.

I have a party next friday and LOTR is certainly the highlight and am concerned I won't find the exact issue in time.

What made me think its something else - is the fact that simply touching the plate that the lock bar secures to was also forcing it into reset loop. I put the game in service mode it went away, then I could not replicate the problem by simply touching the plate. But it did reset again, but when it was in attract mode.

I'll get one - good suggestion did not know they made such things.

Should the latch bar be grounded??? Interesting... this problem started occurring after I put side armor on it... I bet I forgot to hook up a ground someplace. This site is the best - to help you find those obvious solutions..... I had all but forgotten I had done that.

It's grounded all parts are well socket other pins play ok on socket - and it's a new problem anybody have any ideas? What to check? Also watched voltage on wall socket it does not flux. A clean 122 volts

I tried another driver board so I know it's not fuse holders only change was putting on side rails. I have had the game for a few years and not much has changed recently... I look at the connectors next thanks

Yes I did I checked another outlet that runs on the same circuit, the power still looks good. Its getting worse, and can be induced by simply holding the left flipper now (not energized.)

I added my own Shaker with the pinbits pal 10.02 sometime ago - had no issues for 6 months after installation. Its the SE.

It's the light touching the switch matrix me thinks its the barlorg. Adjusted switch we shall see.

Played 50 games, no issue Help topic solved.

So I ended up having this problem, or having people ask about this problem a number of times. the 4 issues I have found are

1) Power cord was loose and when I was stepping to do a switch test I was making the power cord come out of the wall just a bit.
2) Corrosion had snuck into the chip right under the batteries.
3) The chip right under the batteries had become loose
4) The switch in Balrog was making contact with one wire that has voltage to make the light work in Balrog so it was causing problems on restarting the game.