Quoted from krankin:

So for those following along this thread.. My new node board arrived today. Installed it and managed to get past the "node initializing" screen. All this excitement and hope, only to be defeated when I noticed that some of the playfield lighting wasn't coming on.. "No worries" I thought, I probably missed a connector.. NOPE.. Everything past the ghosts caught lights is out.. So here I am thinking "Well, I guess i can still play, I mean, i won't know some things, but the game works again.. Well that was wrong too.. Seems my opto board is screwing up as well. In diagnostics it thinks all 6 balls are in the trough and one "staged" to go in the shooter lane. Under the playfiled, the led for ball 6 is constantly on.. as I roll balls thru the trough all the other lights come on/off, but 6 stays..
So 300 bucks for a node board, a weeks worth of anticipation, and more let down (and I'm confident more money for replacement boards).. Ugh.