Kenmore dishwasher ultra was quiet guard 3 model 56516012403 control panel will not activate red lights blinking on normal wash and cancel drain. did the hold the heat dry button then the normal wash button, it stopped the blinking but the dishwasher will not engage when you push any button

Well, I could be wrong, but is sounds like a bad control module or control console (keypad).

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Hello.
Manufactured by Whirlpool, Kenmore dishwashers have an electronic control panel that must be unlocked in order to set or make changes to your dishwashing cycle. If an error light is blinking on your dishwasher's control panel, the panel must be reset before you can gain access. Blinking lights on your dishwasher control panel may signal a mechanical problem that needs to be repaired. If the lights continue to blink after you've reset the control panel, contact Sears to service your Kenmore dishwasher or consider troubleshooting the appliance yourself.
1Press and hold the "Heated Dry" button on your Kenmore dishwasher for four seconds to unlock the dishwasher control panel.
2 Press the "Heated Dry," "Normal Wash," "Heated Dry" and "Normal Wash" buttons one after the other, in fairly quick succession.
3 Wait for the dishwasher to run a short diagnostic test.
4 Press the "Cancel/Drain" button at the end of the diagnostic test cycle. This should reset the control panel on your Kenmore dishwasher.

Thanks.

Wish I could solve this, as I'm having the same problem too. Normal light blinks not matter which wash button is pressed. Cancel light will light, but still NOTHING happens. Same model as yours.

take kick plate off get book out how to reset board

I suspect for either of these units that the timer control boards are bad.

call sears, 1-800-4MY-HOME. They have a trouble-shooting department that will get rid of this problem. It is caused by water temperature being wrong at the start of the cycle.... blah, blah, blah. The representative will tell you to push a certain set of buttons in a certain order and that unlocks the dishwasher.

Sorry I don't know the sequence

I just read this for the same problem: push sanitize, then heat and dry, sanitize, heat and dry, sanitize, heat and dry, cancel, then open and close the door. It worked. The dishwasher is running correctly even as I type this. 

I have a very similar problem. When I push a wash selection, every light on the panel shows up...and when I push Start, nothing happens. When I push cancel, it trys to drain, even tho no water is in there any more. Have you ever had an answer to your problem?

I had the same flashing light problem first the normal wash flashing light then the others. I tried shuting of the breakers but nothing. I tried resetting the panel by pushing normal wash and heated dry simultaneously and nothing. So I took the six screws holding the front panel out and unplugged the ribbon type wires and plug and unplugged it several times to help make a better contact and I was able to get it to work right away. This may not work for all but I worked for me. It is very easy to do and it's worth a try if you're having the same problem. It took me less then 10 minutes.

QuietGuard3: Clean light flashing 7 times? Press Heated Dry, press Normal Wash, then press Heated Dry again and press Normal Wash again (that's 4 button-presses) and that should fix it.