Reel not advancing when turning on the game

When turning on games before last night's Belles & Chimes tournament, Top Score was having a problem in which it sounded like it was trying to repeatedly advance a reel. I know it's had a similar problem in the past, and if it's the same issue, then you can apparently reach into the machine and poke something to help it get past that, but the game should reliably turn on and operate without having to access its internals.