I would love to see this as well. Picked up a used HUO Ghostbusters (Pro) only to have node 8 completely fail a couple hours after bringing it home. Called Stern support and was advised to purchase a new board (P/N 520-7017-72). That's the latest node board. Unfortunately, its special order and I was told to expect about 2 weeks before it's shipped.

Sadly, since there are only 14 or so components (12 transistors and 2 capacitors) that even look serviceable on the board, I'm not sure repair is even an option.

I suspect the same thing. If it were a transistor, I'd expect one series of switches or LEDs to quit working, but as my board was failing the whole lower half of the playfield would die. I could reboot the machine and it would work for a seemingly random amount of time (I could find no consistent action that caused it to die). Eventually it stopped working entirely.

FWIW, it get's the 48v status light still, but the 6v light is dead as well as the communication one.

northvibe That's a great point. I may change the two caps out just out of curiosity.

When I called support I asked if they were seeing a common point of failure on these boards, the reply I got made me suspect they either don't know or aren't telling.

I'll post some pictures when I get home this evening. My busted one does not look like the picture above. It's a 520-6985-72B. I haven't seen a picture of the one I ordered 520-7017-72 to know what the differences are.

There are other threads on here about bad stern node boards that have pictures like the one I currently have.

What qualifies as "very fast"? I was told 2 weeks when I ordered mine yesterday (distributor). It really sucks having a new-to-me game in the basement that isn't playable. Hoping the 2 weeks is just a buffer number and they get it shipped out quicker.

megadeth2600 My board is less narrow, more rectangular. It has a mounting screw in the center of the board as well. I suspected a cracked solder joint too, but most of the board is (unsure of the right term) surface mounted?? the only through hole components are the pins, transistors,and 2 capacitors. I guess I could bake the board in my toaster oven, but that's something I'm hesitant to do as I've never done it before.

megadeth2600 the node board (not the cpu board) has status indicators as well. They are not listed in the ops manual for whatever reason.

Yes, everything on the CPU is functioning as described in this video from stern.

Absolutely a schematic would have been helpful here, but I'm guessing since they highlight the "ease of board replacement" as a feature, providing board schematics would be counter to the business model.

At this point it looks like I'll be breaking out the microscope and reflowing pins tonight. Since the new board is already on order and it's not working now, I'm willing to try things to fix it.

I'll be home in an hour or so.. I'll take some high quality pictures of the board.

Yes near flippers, just plastic posts and wood screws..

Here a couple pictures of the Node 8 board.. I need better lighting if you want to see any specifics. Anyway, I'm going to look over the thing carefully for any cracked solder joints. Will let you know you if I find anything suspicious.

board-front (resized).JPG

IMG_3934 (resized).JPG

Like I mentioned earlier, this board is a 520-6985-72. Support recommended I "upgrade" to the 520-7017-72.

Quick update, my new board is on the UPS truck out for delivery this morning.. I should be able to post some pictures of the new model for reference against the old one.

I think a certain set of node boards from spikes are interchangeable. The GB board I posted in this thread earlier is not the same model that I ordered to replace it. I think stern is on their 3rd revision of the node boards, games like WWE (maybe GOT) have the earliest one and it may not be replaceable with the latest versions.. Here's hoping this time they've worked out all the kinks.

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.

How did you diagnose that chip as your problem? I've not seen a schematic or anything for these boards.

RobF Yes, I even swapped nodes 8 and 9 just to make sure it wasn't a problem with my new board.

I'm just kind of baffled that both the opto and that LEDs arent working, but the first LED board in that series of node child boards is.
I would think that if whatever finally caused my original node board to fail, were it the reason these things are acting up, would have blown the first node child board too (the ghosts caught ladder and extra ball)??

I'll call stern Tuesday and see if they have any idea whats going on with the opto. Unfortunately, I don't see that I'm left with much option on the LED board, just buy another $150 item and see what the next failure downstream is..

For clarity, the boards that don't appear to be functioning are
* 8a - Trough Serial Opto Receiver Extension
* 8c - Left Drop/Stand-up LED Board
* 8d - 16 Output LED Board w/o Watchdog

Fully working board
* 8b - Center bonus LED Board

Yes, I checked to make sure that fix had been applied.

So after a few weeks I finally have my Ghostbusters (Pro) up and running again, and it's been somewhat of an adventure. Replaced the Node 8 board, the trough receiver board, Node 8B, C, and D lamp boards (probably only needed to replace B, long story). At some point i'm going to blog about this experience, but for brevity, lets just say it's been an eventful 3 weeks trying to get all the parts needed to repair this machine. Worth mentioning, none of the eventful part has anything to do with Stern's response to my issues.

Honestly I can see how just replacing a board is super convenient compared to having to replace components on one. The problem, as was stated earlier in the thread, is the price. If all of these boards were ~20 bucks a piece, it's a no brainer to spend 10 minutes replacing the board(s) and having the game back up and running. At current prices, 50 to 300 dollars a board, the tradeoff for ease of repair isn't worth it.

Even a single board at 50 bucks I could justify, but as was the case with my machine, I had an event that caused multiple boards to fail.

I also want to talk about Stern support. After I received my Node 8 board (which I had to purchase from a distributor) and it did not resolve the issue, they were extremely helpful in essentially providing me with the lamp and opto boards under warranty. Keep in mind I bought my GB used and have no rights to any warranty. They went above what they were obligated to do to help me. Given the extent of failures on my system, I'm very grateful that they helped otherwise I would have had 300 bucks in a node 8 and another 300 in lamp and optos.