Hey all, I asked this question a couple of weeks ago and still haven’t found a fix… seemingly at random the ramp will not lift up after I qualify a mode. It’s never the first or second time I start a mode but once out of every five or so games the ramp simply won’t lift up after the third or fourth or fifth mode is qualified. I downloaded a new code, checked everything around the ramp, and still can’t figure it out. Anyone have any ideas or experienced this issue? Thanks

I had to move the hex post to give it room .I’m not home to take a picture but you should see it .

I used the pic from above .See if the hex is interfering is so align it parallel to the ramp .

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This is the answer right here. The ORB ball was my culprit. Had to mess with the leaf switch by the spoon a TON before getting it " fixed ". What a pain in the ass.

I managed to finally hit the super skill shot and it got me wondering about the skill shots in this game. It seems like the obvious choice is to go for the plunge into left outlane every time. The reason I say this is because the orbit skill shots are way too inconsistent, but if you plunge to the left outlane and plunge too hard you have a good chance of hitting the basic skill shot. If you go too soft you land on a flipper and can shoot the other skill shot by hitting the pharaoh target.

I can't think of any reason to go for the super skill shot unless you're really good at it for the playfield bonus.

I go for basic because I hit it 8/10 times. If you miss it, often you can go jump ramp.

How many of you gents invest in the anti glare glass for your machines? Feel its worth it? My fingers has been on the BUY button for the past few days for one. Just want some input if its worth the money.

I will be buying some for my Iron Maiden (probably AC/DC) as well. I have the Iron Maiden backbox light set to about 10% during play because the reflection is so bad.

I have anti reflection glass on my LZ and it’s awesome.

I have about 20 sheets now. Do it and don't look back. I buy the Voodoo from Cointaker. (they are fairly close by and the shipping cost is reasonable)

Ok glad you have that one , its the one I keep eyeballing. I live in NY I wonder how it will hold up in the shipping.

Ball protector update:

Mine was totally bent up after 300 plays, it was causing some hangups although the ball would roll over in 90% of the situations but some slow balls would get trapped.

I removed the thin metal sheet, carefully, and cleaned the glue off the playfield with Isopropyl alcohol(99%), then cleaned the glue off the metal with another chemical and cleaned it well, degreased, etc.

I had some 3M 300LSE double sided tape, graded for different heavy duty applications. This tape has a lot of grip to it and it gets better over time. The best part is that the grip momentarily dissolves when you wet with isopropyl alcohol, so removing is a breeze, once the alcohol dries off the tape becomes tacky again although it will still work now, it will have a little less grip.

I also waxed the PF before installing it, I don't want a permanent bond nor making it harder for me to maintain this piece. Waxing did not interfere with the bond but might affect long term efficacy of the bonding agent, I don't care. I intend to replace it over time, just not so quickly after 300 plays.

I recommend you guys use this tape when reinstalling the protector, the tape has a very low profile. It's been over 50 games now and it has not moved at all.
I have used this tape before and it is very durable in other applications.
The link provided is just to show what size you want, do not buy the thin roll. I am not affiliated with the seller, this is just for demonstration, I do not endorse this seller in any way.

https://www.amazon.ca/300lse-Adhesive-Transfer-Attaching-Digitizers/dp/B00LWFO5R6

Don't be concerned about shipping. Never an issue. Its packed up securely with plenty of fragile stickers all over it.

the box is very thick and should resist normal transit. If it was damaged severely, it is an indication that it was either dropped or smashed. Scratches are normal and that is what the box is for, also, due to the small footprint of the pallet, the freight will rub against other items in the truck or warehouse.
Had several NIBs, some travelled across US to Canada, to the other side of Canada, and it has been great.

Good to hear. Thanks

I'm finally getting the hang of this game. I took grand champion the other day finally and then managed 350 million. I'm consistently getting over 200 million now too which was almost impossible for me a few days ago. I consistently die with all power features lit except ramps though which is getting annoying. I'm finding the ramp shots the hardest to hit at will.

I also hit my first 4 ball trooper multiball which was awesome when I realized what happened. I'm wondering if that was by design or if someone hit it in testing and realized they could handle it by giving you a little bonus.

my game(premium) finally arrives tomorrow after lots of delays. Lets hope the frieght gods are kind and fedex delivers it in one peice....

hang in there, the ramps, for me the right one specially is super hard! but today I managed a 8X combo on both and got a crazy score on Icarus

I'm finding the right ramp the harder one too. I feel like there's a psychological element once you realize the left one isn't as hard as it looks and the right one is further out than you expect. I seem to just under shoot it every time even though I can hit the outer orbit with pretty good consistency.

I always end mariner with the starboard shots still lit too!

mariner and aces high are the 2 modes I cannot complete, the moving targets at the end are killers and I lose my nerve and disaster strikes, lol.
What an awesome game, I can't stop playing it. the shots are so fun, it is never chopping wood, excellent flow, just awesome pinball.

after noticing the 3 bank target resetting really hard, I remembered that the coil power can also be adjusted from the options menu so I lowered to 36.
Now the Pf does not shake anymore when the bank resets. It was so strong before that it would make it vibrate quite noticeably...

Wondering if you guys noticed that too, I am not sure if the extra vibration might be an issue or not, at any rate, it works fine too at 36 power setting.

Another thing I noticed, Stern put some sort of silicon grease on the back on the wedges so they slide easier... I am not a fan of that because it will gunk up over time with coil dust and it will slow the targets down. I just recently rebuild the drop downs in my Indiana Jones due to that issue and a nice clean up fixed them all... no lube needed to make it work after that... no issues.

Just some food for thought and maintenance down the road, I just did not know they were lubing the back of the wedges...

We also noticed the ball would jump when the target bank reset but I didn't know there was a power setting for them. I'll have to give that a try.

I also reduced my trough eject power because I read that on these machines it's high enough default that it can damage the lane. I dropped my flipper power by 5 too and that seems to have reduced the number of balls I get jumping out of the wireforms and pharoah face shots.

good to know it was not just my game with a crazy strong drop down target bank. It is option #63 in the Game adjustments.
And yeah, good idea about the ball through eject, I do that on all my Stern on day one and also add mylar on the shooter lane. I have tried both cliffies and mylar and do not notice the difference, sure, the cliffy is permanent and will never need replacement but the mylar is 0.10 cents.

I actually do the entire lane with mylar (It is waxed before hand), including the elbow where the ball enters the PF/game area. I hav done it so many times that I can do it quickly and the mylar is cut to size to fit perfectly. I can get this done under 10 min and you barely see anything on my game.
I have seen guys do this but they cut the mylar too short and it does not do much... The way I do it, maybe over the top, is how I like it.

I have been doing it in all my games and all of them had clean and pristine lanes the entire time I owned them.

Particularly in games with an elbow/turn on the lane, the ball with leave marks rather quickly on this area when unprotected and and it is very hard to remove these marks once there are there without a lot of polishing (that introduces scratches). I cut a small piece of mylar on this area that prevent this, and makes maintenance there a breeze.

Highly recommend!
here is a pic! this lane has multiple pieces and the exit how is fully covered with a custom cut with 3 pieces of mylar, from the wire gate all the way down to the switch. Closer to the switch, mid way up, it might look like the wood is dirty but this is a defect of the wood, it was like this on day one. The lane is perfect and mylar reduces the maintenance here 95+%, which is the most used area of the game.
This is what it looks like after 360 games as of today. the lane is waxed so the whole mylar comes off just by looking at it if I needed to.

Cheers

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I'm also getting the hang of it....first time cracking 2B the other night.

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well done! that is a crazy score. My game has been punishing me and can't get past 700M I did the first day, lol.

I have only beat the beast a handful of times. I was super stoked to kill him on the first ball. Actually was the 3rd ball though as EB's were on I actually wanted to quit because the game went on so long and my wrists were killing me and my kids were waiting on dinner lolol

I have only beat the beast a handful of times. I was super stoked to kill him on the first ball. Actually was the 3rd ball though as EB's were on I actually wanted to quit because the game went on so long and my wrists were killing me and my kids were waiting on dinner lolol

Might be the audio IC(s). My Munsters is doing sort of the same thing. There's even a YouTube video out there somewhere showing the gent replacing the chip. And Ben Heck mentioned not long (in the Deeproot thread) he might do a video on the chip swapping for the same audio reason.

A couple of things to try to chase down the problem: 1) Put your finger on one of the two audio chips (careful, might be toasty if bad). 2) My Munsters is a little different. Turn it on - audio is fine. Wait for it to warn up, turn it off and wait a bit, then back on - audio is muted and woofer chip is hot. Is you pin doing any of these?

I bought the replacement IC awhile ago and plan on swapping out this winter. A person would need a hot air gun, not just a soldering iron since there's a thermal pad on the bottom of the chip. So maybe not a repair for a person not experienced w/soldering.

Any chance you are running an external woofer on the pin?

Just tossing this out to help maybe shed a little light on your end.

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Wow! I'd say you've got the hang of it for sure!

My goal is cyborg multiball next, baby steps right!

Looks good. I also have the woodgrain/discoloring on the shooter lane btw.

I've figured out my only complaint with this table is that Iron Maiden has been stuck in my head for a week now. I mean it could be worse but I just keep saying "The glamour, the fortune, the pain" over and over and it's getting to me haha

Thanks for the info.

I shipped my board out for repair. As it has now been almost 4 months, I may need to look at alternatives. That's why I started a search for a replacement board (crazy expensive or not available at all). I contacted Stern and they suggested I go thru a distributor and get an RMA generated to ship directly to the company. I think this will be my next step as I am beyond frustrated having a non-functioning machine.

The machine is completely stock. No woofer. As far as working on boards, I tend to leave that to the experts. Last thing I'd want to do is make things worse!

Joined the club recently, love this game. Game is level, just started noticing that the ball doesn’t clear the loop when firing with the auto plunger, it hits the entrance and post, then bounces up towards the sarcophagus. Pitch is 6.5. I’m not sure what else I should be checking so that the auto plunge fires cleanly to the loop.

Check the Iron Maiden Issues topic for more details but after reading through that whole topic and this one I found a few solutions people said worked for them.

The easiest one that takes you a few minutes effort and costs no money is to check the end of your ball guide for a burr. The very end of the guide can develop a small burr that pushes the ball down towards the bonus target. Just file it off.

Some people followed the official Stern adjustment instructions and it worked
https://o.pinside.com/2/d7/6d/2d76d16f8452308eab945aa48cd745cc10f1e3de.pdf

Others had to place a shim behind the ball guide to get it to stay at the correct angle.

Some people said adjusting the prongs of the auto shooter to ensure they are hitting the ball evenly helped.

A few people said that upgrading the solenoid in the auto shooter to a stronger one fixed it too.

For me, after I removed the burr my auto plunge is like 8/10 which I'm happy enough with not to want to bother with opening the side up and adjusting the screw.

I got my NIB premium today and have a few questions.

#1 - bottom of my playfield has "display game" branded on it. Game seems fine and was definetly not played before as there werent any dimples. Just wondering what thats all about

#2 - the plunge. Using the shooter rod the plunge isnt able to make that awesome loop 90% of the time. Ive changed springs and adjusted the position. The Auto plunge makes it EVERY time and its cool. Anyone else have that issue?

Besides that the game is Fing awesome. The layout is so darn cool. Before today ive only had about 2 games on a Pro at a show.

I think the post right before yours summarizes potential solutions to plunger issues, although some of them are auto-plunger too. I got a NIB Pro yesterday and I have the same problem. Auto plunger mostly fine, manual plunger very low percentage of reaching the loop. The Stern adjustment definitely made it significantly better, but it still isn't as reliable as I'd want. I'll probably try to bend it more this weekend and tinker with it.

My auto plunge is pretty accurate but the manual hardly ever makes the orbit. I noticed my plunger rod is not centered on the ball and I have no idea how to center it, but I was wondering if that might be the reason.

What stern adjustment? The post before mine seems to state auto plunge doesnt work much either. My auto plunge is perfect, just the manual plunge not so much. I did adjust the shooter rod a bit so its hitting the ball exactly in middle. Since the auto plunge is perfect ill assume all lane guides and whatnot are fine, and its just the shooter rod that needs adjustment I think

Definitely the problem. Seems to be a common issue with new Sterns. You have to adjust the mounting of the shooter rod housing. I think I've had to do this on every Stern I've bought.

I had the same problem, but the the auto plunge would sometimes make it - leading me to believe it was the shooter rod. Tried to adjust both the shooter rod and rail - not much luck. I read the comments about the burr at the end of the rail guide. I checked mine and I could barely make out a burr. Almost nonexistent, but I took a hobby file and gave it a couple swipes anyway. Nah - that won't make a bit of difference...wrong! Been perfect auto and manual plunges for maybe 6 months. Seriously, 100% perfect, not a single miss (I would spot that immediately).

So while you might end up needing to adjust the rail or shooter rod in the end, give the end of the rail a quick swipe or two first with a file since it only takes seconds.

Hope the file works!

Just as a point of interest, as it relates to that silicon grease you noticed...
I recently replaced my drop targets on my Stern Star Wars (exchanging for those transparent drops). This was an NIB from a few months ago. When I was exchanging the drops, I also noticed this very same grease on the back of the drops. I'm not sure what their routine was in the past, but this seems to be a routine maneuver nowadays for the back of the drops at Stern.

Yes there is some sort of grease on the drops. I've replaced the drops on LZ and DP without the grease and it doesn't seem to affect play.

I had to change my spring to the red/stiffest spring in order for the ball to make the loop. It is difficult to get a soft enough plunge to make the super skill shot at the super jackpot, but it is possible. Using the spring that came with the game, I could not get enough power to make the loop at all.

I guess I should ask what color spring is stock in this game?

For those of you having issues with the ball not making the orbit, start by looking at how the ball behaves when it leaves the lane guide.
It is very common for the ball to hit the very tip of the upper right flipper in which case you need to adjust the lane guide down, towards the coin door.
If the ball is hitting the entrance of the orbit across the playfield low without first hitting the tip of the upper right flipper you probably have a burr or a mushed end on the lane guide and need to file it down. Also make sure the rubber tip on the shooter rod is firmly pressed on and centered.
You need to check the route cause for the problem first otherwise you don´t know what to fix.
Record with the phone and watch in slow-motion to see what is going on.
When everything is adjusted the way it should, you don´t need other springs or coils.

Adjusting the shooter rod is a very easy and doable thing.
Lift up your playfield to the maintenance position and take a look at the housing there at the shooter rod.
On the inside of the cabinet, there at the shooter housing, you will notice a series of screws. I'm not in my game, but usually it is three larger Phillips head screws and two hex screws.

Loosen, and or remove the 2 small hex screws, then loosen but do not take out the 3 Phillips head screws.
At this point you'll notice that the shooter housing is loose and you can shift it up, down, left, and right a little bit.
Make the adjustment that you think you need to make to center the shooter rod, hold that position with one hand while replacing the hex screws and then tightening the Phillips head screws.

As you bring your playfield down back into position you'll notice that your shooter rod alignment has changed.
This sometimes takes a little trial and error, but eventually you should be able to maneuver the shooter rod such that it is nicely centered.
Hope this helps!

Agreed. I did not place any grease on those clear drops when I exchanged them on my other Stern game, and they are very quick and responsive and haven't noticed that they needed anything applied to the backs of them to keep them responsive and snappy since the exchange.

I think it is a mistake to lube these things, in my opinion these should work perfect without any lube, especially when brand new parts are involved.
I don't have time to take it apart and clean it off and try to see how it works. I suspect that they might be using really strong spring behind the wedges and maybe that is why they are using the lube...

Unrelated vent:
On a totally different note, I was able to see a Spooky game yesterday for the 2nd time, a friend needed help updating code, etc.
This time around I was able to see the inside of the cab as it was not my game... Wow, what a HUGE disappointment and maybe a topic for another thread but since I am here and venting: Spooky uses the cheapest method in the world to build cabinets, butt joints and pocket holes! Horrible! Certainly not meant to last 30 years in a commercial environment -mind you Williams was not planning that either- (moving a cab made with pocket holes, it will eventually come all loose in the corners. I can't tell if there are other reinforcements through the butt joints but I doubt it. Absolute trash. Everything is butt joints. My 5 year old can build a better cab. Cheap cheap cheap cheap building method and horrible choice for a pinball.

All that to say, Stern makes a good cabinet, to Williams standards and even better with upgraded floor that is plywood rather than MDF (maybe their plywood could be a grade better please and not so soft, thanks!) but Spooky's is absolute trash. I don't even use pocket holes in my kitchen cabs.
What a horrible discovery that was, hugely disappointed and those praising spooky's build quality are unaware or out to lunch.

Sure, sometimes (and really not all that frequently) lane guides need to be adjusted, plungers centered a bit, etc etc, but one thing is for sure...Stern definitely knows how to build a pinball machine! No question about it.

I was referring to this:
https://o.pinside.com/2/d7/6d/2d76d16f8452308eab945aa48cd745cc10f1e3de.pdf

Thanks to everyone else for all of the advice. In my case, the auto-plunger was almost always making it. Manual plunge almost always hit the extra ball target. After the adjustment above it certainly got better and now manual plunger does make it sometimes, but I think I still need to tweak. It has enough power to make it around the orbit when it does go through, but it seems weirdly inconsistent. The feedback on the "wedge fix" sounded promising, so maybe I'll try that after checking the easier-to-fix things.

Anyways, this thread has plenty of things for me to try, and it is close enough that I'm pretty confident one of these approaches will get it the rest of the way there. Unfortunately, I'm more addicted to playing it, even with this imperfection, than fiddling with the feed. This game is fun

Thanks, I looked at it quickly but it didn't look like there was any room for adjustment. I'll have to loosen things up and see what I can do.

following the instructions would really help. the screw has a TON of adjustment, the bracket is actually U shaped for the screw so you can adjust.
I suggest you bend the wireworm so it does not pull away from your adjustment once it is down. It might otherwise, over the period of a few hundred games, slightly start to get out of adjustment.
Before you bend the wireworm, you might want to put it on piece of paper and draw the outline of it so you know what the original shape looked like. Small changes here make huge changes when you shoot the ball.

Orange. And i have the upgrades shooter rod. Tried both springs to same effect

to me it seems like the ball loses a lot of energy on the turn and not sure you will see a lot of gain from springs alone, the rod might need to be a bit shorter maybe? I am not a physicist lol but maybeeeeee that would work.