Started a game and noticed many LED's were out. Went into diagnostic mode and confirmed the lights were out. Power cycled the machine and it tried to update node boards and then failed (photos below).

Any idea how to fix this? I played the game earlier today and it was working fine.

Thanks for any pointers,

snaroff

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Ended up being Node 9 in the center of the PF. Ordered a new one from my distributor yesterday. Considering the game was purchased NIB and has only 400 plays, it's a bummer. My LOTR has 6-7 thousand plays and has never had any board issues. They don't make 'um like the use to.

Thanks for the response!

snaroff

Chas helped me diagnose the issue and suggested I order a node board through my distributor. The pin is from 2015, so I don't expect them to ship me one free of charge. I'm sure if I bitched and moaned to the right person, I could get a freebee, but I wasn't in the mood to grovel for one.

It's just one more reason to not be impressed with Spike...my older Stern's consistently out perform the newer games (in terms of error free behavior). To be honest, my B/W games are more reliable than the new Sterns (and if the B/W boards have a problem, low cost fixes are easy from many hobbyists).

snaroff

Received my "new" node board yesterday. Did your replacement have the following jumper hacks on the back?

I asked Chas about it and he claims this was a modification to all node boards of this type (which I guess were only in the first generation Spike machines).

Curious,

snaroff

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That's the "vibe" I got for speaking with Chas. He claims all the "new" Node 9 boards on the 1st generation Spike machines have these adhoc looking wires soldered on the back of the circuit board.

If this is true, and the original boards had a major bug that caused them to fail prematurely (in my case after 400 plays), it seems like the replacement board should be covered by Stern.

As you can see in this photo, my original board looks fresher/newer than the part I just paid $185 for (which I thought would be new/pristine).

I don't mind paying for a new board, but it doesn't feel good to expect new and get restored/hacked. Sometimes it feels like Stern is being less than totally upfront with us. Oh well...seems like the way of the world nowadays.

snaroff

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In hindsight, you were obviously right!

When my board failed, I had no clue that Stern modified *all* boards of this ilk to include the jumpers (only shipped with GOT/KISS IIRC). Seems like they should have issued a bulletin about this?

In any event, Stern/Chas did "do the right thing" and are going to warranty the part (since this board is known to fail prematurely without the jumpers).

Thanks for your advice/follow-up,

snaroff

Ouch. What game? How many plays?

snaroff