My dishwasher is stuck in the "minutes before starting" mode

1 Open and close the door of your Maytag dishwasher.

2 Locate the "Rinse" button on the dishwasher control panel. Press and release the button five times in quick succession.

3 Press and release the adjacent "Drain/Off" button on the control panel two times; this will deactivate the dishwasher's demo mode and reset your dishwasher.

If you need to restart your dishwasher or forgot some dishes and want to open it during a cycle and restart it

1 Press the "Cancel Drain" button on the display. Allow about 2 minutes for the dishwasher to completely drain.

2 Choose a cycle under "Cycles" on the panel.

3 Select an option or options under "Options" on the panel.

4 Push the "Start Resume" button.

I found this post elsewhere. It seems to have worked for me: Our KitchenAid KUDP series dishwasher went into a mode where it would not start and would only respond to the cancel/drain button. The clean light would flash 7 times in a row, stop, and then repeat. I read that the 7 flashes indicates an error code and that the dishwasher has detected a problem in the heater element circuit. I tried to reset the error mode by turning off power for 15 minutes, however, that did not work.
We called for a repair. The service person found that the dishwasher was completely fine except that it had gone into an error mode. The technician reset the error mode and charge us $115.00.

The reset sequence used was reported to be the following:
1) Crack the door open.
2) Within 3 seconds press the following sequence - Hi Temp Scrub, Energy Saver Dry, Hi Temp Scrub, Energy Saver Dry
3) Close and latch the door
4) Press the cancel button (the circle with the triangle in it)

We were told the dishwasher expects to see the dish water temperature rise in a certain way. If the water does not heat in this way, the dishwasher becomes confused and thinks the heater element has failed. In deed, this happened just following and extended power failure and our hot water tank was cool. I am curious if this code will work for anybody else with the same problem and save a service call and 115 bucks. Overall, this seems to be a serious logic flaw in the design.

This should help: PDW8000 series: press the resetbutton once. This will cancel the washing cycle and pump the water out of themachine. PDW9000 series: open the door aninch and wait for the machine to stop. Touch the reset button to cancel thewashing cycle and reboot the panel.
According to the GE Owner's Manual for the PDW9000 series only: If the"start/reset" light is flashing, close the door until the water pumpsout (this takes approximately 2 minutes) and the light stops flashing. When thelight stops flashing, the dishwasher can be reprogrammed and restarted. If the machine is unresponsive, killthe power to the machine by turning it off on the wall switch (if applicable)or turning the circuit breaker off. Leave the power off for 30 seconds,then turn the power back on. If thatdoes not work here is the repair info: Get into the service mode by pressingkeypads #8 and #4 for 3 seconds. Then reset from service mode. LINK to SCHEMATIC

CHECK DOOR MICROSWITCH :)

what is happenig i believe and has happened to me 2 times is that the water level float that is on the left side of dishwasher is stuck.

Either remove side panel and flick lever or pull dishwasher out and tap lower portion of panel and this will cause the level to move and then see hat happens

try pressing stop or cancel button for 10 full seconds. If this does not work, unplug the machine for 10 minutes. While unpluged, press and hold cancel or stop but for 10 seconds, then plug machine back in. If it still does not work, test the door switch with an ohmmeter to make sure the door switch is not faulty.

Looks like micro controller problem. Contact service center for assistance.

My motto with all electrical systems is: If all else fails reboot. Find the breaker that controls the dishwasher and switch it off for a couple of minutes. this will clear out the electronic buffer. and reset the systems. make sure that the door is not closed, reset the breaker and try to restart your dishwasher.

you need a new cycle selector ...or "timer "....

you have probably flooded the base of the machine and it now is in flood mode take side panel off and have a look and drain water away common fault