Is there any easy way to get the ring trough off without pulling the playfield? I really don't want to do that if I don't have to. :/

Yea,

Pull the playfield so its sitting on the support rails, then grab a piece of wood slightly larger than the width of the cabinet, lift the rear of the pf up and slide the wood under to hold it up. The rear trough is only held on by two screws

Fascinating....What do you support the playfield on onto the wood? With all the coils and motors and such sticking below?

Hey guys - got another question.

How important is the plastic on the Shire VUK? Mine is broken and I don't feel like buying a new set. I may make my own when I try and make my own slings, but if it's not a major "must have" plastic, I'm not going to bother.

Every now and then mine will take a hit from a ball off of the ramp. So I'm hesitant to throw a new one on there anyway. Mine is broken at the bottom and I haven't bothered to replace it.

So my game is back together! Only a few things to do!

1) Flipper rebuild because it was routed.
2) The top right POTD switch doesn't work, so I'm guessing I just need to replace it.
3) Sound issue is still present...I replaced all 5 sound ROMS. No fuzzy white noise anymore, but now the music will randomly drop out. It seems to be after a switch is hit, but no switch in particular.

Once that's done, I need to replace a few bulbs and the game will be 100%!

Sorry to double post, but can someone take some pictures of inside their backbox for me? Particularly of the sound board area? I want to make sure everything looks good on connections while I try and track down my audio issue...

It drops, dips, spikes, white noise pops, etc. ROMS should be good, but SOMETHING is wrong. I guess it could be the speakers? I don't know. Trying to diagnose it today.

Not a LE, but...

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Thanks. Mine is a lot messier looking than yours, but everything seems to be in order.

I did shoot a video of my sound issues.

Also, is anyone else's magnet really loud? And do you notice your fuses popping on and off again a lot? My Balrog motor works good, but sometimes has a hard time starting. I've also managed to bump it out of place from a ball hitting it while not engaged. I imagine I just need to get in and tighten some stuff?

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I just joined the club. Mine has an LED burned out on the Rings LED board just above the flippers that displays how many rings you have collected. One of the white Elf LED's is burned out. Does anyone know where to get just the LED so I don't have to spend a $100 to replace the whole board?

Well, just wherever it goes , try and put it slightly forward of the solenoids for the two towers and be gentle moving it around and it wont damage anything.

fuses? If your blowing ring mag fuses make sure to replace them with 5a as with mine it kept blowing them, I thought that my ring coil was going and replaced it, new one did the exact same thing, so then after some reading it turns out its fairly common and that 4a sb is slightly two low for what it draws, replaced it with a 5 and its smooth sailing my guess is maybe my mains voltage is a little high in my area.

for noise, it does make some noise, but over time coils will heat up expand and the wires will loosen up so it will be a little louder. Actually if it bothers you I wonder if wax potting would work? They do that in microphonic guitar pickups, if there is a higher temp wax one could use..

For balrog, if hes sticking/jerking it probably means your gearbox is going, in my old lotr this happened, opened it up and one of the gears teeth were worn down, happily a new gearbox is only 100, smooth as silk after!

I should have updated - the game is playing 100% now. Just took a little tinkering to get it where I needed it to be!

White LED Cree C503C-WAS-CBADA151

Try that one

FYI or future people searching

White LED Cree C503C-WAS-CBADA151.

Red LED KINGBRIGHT W53SRC/DU.

Yellow LED KINGBRIGHT WP7113SYC-H.

Awesome! Thanks for the info!

I just picked up a HUO Standard Model game this past weekend. It is a 2004 production with metal apron and stamped sheet metal playfield support guides. In order to follow protocol I need to ask the following question. The playfield contains a bunch of miniature characters on the playfield; the same ones depicted in the brochure. I notice people buying AOME characters off eBay, etc. and adding them to their playfield. Are they replacing the existing ones or adding them to LE models or later runs that, perhaps, didn't have any to start with? Thanks for the replies. JLC

The LE was shipped without any figures as Stern just bought the AOME ones for the early 2K runs but they were not in production any more when the LE was built.
So many LE owners are buying them as their games don't have them at all. Others are replacing broken or missing ones on their older run LotRs. On my machine I added one that was completely missing (Stern ran out of single characters at different times while producing the game), 2 others were missing body parts and all were missing their weapons. So I just bought them all again off eBay, replaced the missing & broken ones and added the original weapons to the complete gang.

I've posted links to all characters Stern used in their first runs of LotR in post 154, the ones linked (AOME) are the exact same original ones that Stern used.

I believe all the stuff you spoke of was on all runs of lotr. I think only sm saw plastic aprons eventually in the late runs.

As for the figures, the le's came without figures, I guess jersey jack didn't see them as worthy for this, but above that just like every other machine, people add extras as mods.

HELP! As I mentioned above, I picked up an LOTR this weekend. In order to transport the game in my vehicle I had to remove the backbox. I coded all the connectors with numbers and drew a schematic. I started to hook everything up this evening and I ran across one connector that did not have a number tag. I was in a hurry so I could have overlooked one, but this usually means it is a connector that is not used. Can someone look in their game and tell me if this connector is N/U based on my description: When facing the backbox you have a harness bundle coming up through the lower cabinet on the right side. There are six heavy gauge yellow wires (usually 6VAC for lamps) and a few others coming from a gray corrugated tube. Shortly after emerging and Ty-wrapped to this yellow bundle is two pairs of black wires (two with orange tracer and two with white tracer) about 2" long that go into a Molex connector with two female pins. It is the kind of connector that is for connecting wires in line and not going to a circuit board. Does this connector go to anything? Thanks in advance, JLC

Hi JLC, I have the same connector not hooked up to anything. I've only had her for a few weeks but no credit dot and everything seems to be hunky dory? Hopefully someone can answer the mystery of the unhooked connector...
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I need a good waterslide decal made for this playfield? Anybody??

Crispin, Thanks for the help. You have given me the confidence to throw the switch. I suppose we could trace the wires to the origin in the bottom cabinet and get an idea of what voltage. The only thing I can think of it might have to do with the UK version or the TOPS Tournament option. JLC

Am in the UK, just checked mine and at first I thought I didn't have that connector, then I realised it's strapped to the back of the wiring loom - and more importantly not connected to anything.

Hope you enjoy the game!

I replaced my burned out LED with this one and its about 50 times brighter than the other LEDs. The color matched but its just way too bright. I'll see if I can find a dimmer one.

Hmm not sure as I haven't replaced mine. Those were the part numbers I got from stern tech support when I inquired about them.

As the new owner of a LOTR I am putting together a list of mods that I would like to purchase. High on the list is the addition of a shaker. I purchased the PAL chip from Pinbits. I have read the threads on the Forum about adding the shaker. I have one question I hope some knowledgeable person on this site can answer: My game was built in early 2004. I know about the PAL chip and the LE version of ROM's but do I need this "Bootflash U7 EPROM" that Pinbits mentions? It was not covered in the Pinside write-up for installing the shaker. Thanks for any help the Pinside members may provide. JLC - Cincinnati, OH

Personally, and FWIW, I'm not a big shaker fan and I've not added one to my LOTR. So if I may, don't forget about: ColorDMD, LED's, Cliffys, Jay's Palantir mod, and the Path of the Dead (POTD) mods. (I listed those in no particular order, and no I do not have all of them on my LOTR.)

Yes, I gave you ZERO help in your shaker questions... So sue me. Have fun, buddy!

(If nothing else, I gave you a bump.)

You need 10.02 rom, shaker rev b, and the pal chip. I highly recommend the shaker. Here is a thread on it:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-to-install-shaker-motor-in-lotr-standard-edition

I can't believe i never noticed this thread before. Lord of the Rings is my longest owned pin. I got it new in December of 2003 and it's one that will never leave. In my humble opinion it is one of the greatest pinball machines made!

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Ligjted gandalf staff

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/ad/18686

You're right. It is one of the greatest ever!

Finally!!! After close to two years of missing my membership card to this club... Lord Of The Rings is in the house!!! It's not the same one I sold, but it's in really good shape, and plays fast and loose. Color DMD, LED OCD, and a few other tidbits. It's gonna be a happy night!!!

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Welcome back, sir.

Way to go Dave! Bask in the awesomeness!!!!

I missed this game. I've played it on location and at friends houses (including this copy) since selling it, but it feels really good to put some games on it at home again. And I'm playing it totally different than I used to when I owned it. I want to get to Valinor. And my first step for that is being able to actually complete Feallowship Multiball. So that is my first quest. Be able to get them all across the bridge.

This is gonna be fun!

Copied from a thread I started - realized I should have rightfully posted it here:

So Trent Augenstein comes over today to fix an issue on my Medieval Madness and we decide to play a couple of friendly games to check it out. I end up beating him 18 million to 14 million. Mind you he was testing the replaced components and I was trying, but still a win over a Top 5 player is a win over a Top 5 player. So then he had some time so I asked him to show me some tips and strategies on my LOTR LE. Ball one he drained faster than I usually do and only had 140,000 score. BALL 2 HE ROCKED ALL THE TO VALINOR!!! He did have a couple of extra balls in there but it was a thing of beauty. I was asking him questions at the start and then I realized he was really getting deep into the game objectives and so at one point I said, "Hey you could make it Valinor." He said, "Yeah, I might." So I shut my mouth and got out my phone and got it on video. I asked him when it was over how many times he had made it before and he said maybe 2 or 3. This was one game to show me a few tips. I got a full-on tutorial and a display of skill that was unbelievable. Game time 75 minutes. Final score was 725.3 million. I am still in awe...

Hell yeah! Enjoy the ride. I have completed the characters over the bridge but still haven't destroyed the ring.

Must be some interesting settings. I've destroyed the ring dozens of times but gotten all the characters over maybe 2 or 3 times.

Great game!

It could also be the tension of DTR itself. DTR is one of my favorite modes in all of pinball. The music, the calls, and just the tension if hitting the shots.

And now that I'm playing the game a lot again, yeah, I missed owning it. I finally got to There And Back Again (first time), but made a mess of it. And I'm really working on finishing multiballs and modes. It really is a great game.

Got the same "problem". DTR is a massive PITA. I've done it, but it's extremely hard to get both balls through the ring. Usually when hit, the ball originally caught in the ring comes through, but the ball i used to hit it drops out the front (99.9% of the time). When DTR is set to 1 ball it's no problem at all to get it done.

Fellowship i actually find rather easy. Get control, hold (at least) one ball on the left flipper, hit Balrog with the right, catch, backhand up the sword ramp, repeat as needed. It's not such a big deal. And always have the Palantir lit when starting any multiball to easily cash in add-a-ball when needed.

This is a pleasure to read. I owned LOTR for approx 6 yrs before selling it close to 3 yrs ago. I have an opportunity to pick up a huo LE and starting to think it's time to make the journey back to valinor

I just watched all 3 movies in high def extended version on iTunes. Not my first time watching the movies, but a first in HD. What a great movie! ...and pin

Get it again! The second time is better than the first. It's like an old friend moving back to town, you spend about half an hour catching up, and then just start having fun again like they never left. And I love that it is in the new gameroom because I'm yelling out the callouts in the proper voices (did I mention the new gameroom is pretty soundproof?).

Even if you only plan on bringing it back for 6 months or so, I'd still say do it.

Yeah Dave unfortunately that's my problem. I crack under the pressure. I'm also a pretty good pool player until it's the 8 ball shot. Choke

Want to talk about cracking under pressure....when I owned LOTR for those 6 years, I had ...not 1, not 2, but 6!! Times I had the ball in the ring with second ball in play and only had to hit that one ball out and make it to valinor! Not just destroy the ring but actually make valinor!

It wasn't til I sold the game to RobT, then played it at his house that I finally made it to valinor

I own a Lotr LE since some weeks and absolutly love the game. However my Lotr has the normal flipper coils, which get hot After 30 minutes. Then it is extremly difficult to achieve Ring shots, because the Flippers are extremly week. I know that I can install stronger coils, but I fear that I might ruin my pin on the long run, when shooting with additional power of upgraded flipper coils. Looking into youtube Lotr games of skilled players, it seems that they do not suffer any Problems with the flipper strength. Have they all installed the strong coils? What do you think of this issue? Is it only a Choice between very week flippers/week Games and strong Flippers/detroying the Game on the Long run?

Trank you for any feedback

Greetings from Germany

Eckhard

For the record, I got to Valinor before you did!

Zora, DO buy and install the upgraded coils. http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1112

I (and many others) have. No issues. I'm surprised the old ones don't burst into flames they get so hot.

Do it. You'll be glad you did.

I have the upgraded coils, they are strong and don't weaken. I was afraid of breaking stuff with them, but so far so good.

I'm back! And I'm NEVER leaving again.

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