MTH Empire Express PS3 conventional running - lights flashing / garbled sound

What are you using for power?

Lionel 1033 transformer.  Has worked fine in the past for this PS3 engine and runs a conventional locomotive just fine around the tree track.

try to reset the engine

are the wheels and rollers clean?

have you lubricated the engine?

is the tether seated fully?

can you apply power with the engine on its side on the bench, to test it?

I only have the basic DCS Remote Commander so I can't do a factory reset, but the engine runs fine on my everyday DCS equipped layout.  It's just when trying to run it on the small, conventional 032 loop I have under the xmas tree that it acts weird.  I've never seen any of my engines flash their lights like this at startup and figured it was some sort of error message.

I'd be looking for stuff like power problems.  FWIW, if you factory reset it on your "everyday DCS" layout, and immediately remove it from the tracks, you don't have to factory reset it again to run with the DCS Remote Commander.

You do realize that there is a reset using the DCS Remote Commander for PS/3 engines manufactured from late 2014 and onward, right?  It's only the earlier ones that you can't reset with the DCS-RC.

Turn off power if on
Wait 15 seconds
Turn on power: the engine should be dark and quiet
Press no other buttons
Press SND
Press DIR
Press "-" (on the gray rocker in the center of the remote. Also is the speed down button.)
The engine will give a two honk response and will be sitting on the track running
The engine has now been factory reset, and is ready to run with your DCS Remote Commander system.

Thanks John, I'd totally forgotten about that Remote Commander reset process.  I took a closer look at the bottom of the tender and noticed some lint build-up on the leaf contacts to the wheels.  I took them off and cleaned them, also noticing that the pickup roller seemed to have been replaced backwards.  One or both of these things seems to have made a difference, as it's running OK on the conventional track now.  I was just concerned about the rhythmic flashing I was getting at startup, as it seemed like a built-in error code or something.

It's just ghosts.