Do incandescent bulbs burn out quickly too? Is the bulb locked on when it is not supposed to be?
Do you have a multimeter? If so, what is the voltage reading?

Good call Seal pointing it out.

Locked on bulbs can melt inserts and ramps (especially flashers).

The LEDs I guess acted like fuses (better they burned out than burn your inserts....)

Bad batch of Led's? That thing should be able to be lit for years straight without getting hot. Check the voltage at those 3 inserts. If that checks out let the led manufacturer know so they can investigate.

But, sometimes when they lock, they become super bright and super hot.

Not just the normal 6v when that happens.

On many games the lamp matrix is 18v, but pulses rapidly so the bulbs are on 1/3 of the time (6v). When they lock, the lamp is given the full 18v and is very bright (until it burns out, lol).

Yep he is probably getting the full voltage. I prefer my led's to be non-smoking, lol

If all three of those were locked on, I'd suspect all of ROW1. Do your KEEP letters and Shoot Again also stay locked on? If so, it could be a short under the playfield or a shorted Q33 transistor.

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Edit: I just read closer and saw that you already mentioned Shoot Again. What about KEEP letters?

Disconnect the row connector and see if the lights still stay on. If they do then there's a short to ground in the playfield wiring, if not then I'd look at the driver transistor as herg suggested.

You need to start by checking the Transistors that control those lights on the I O Driver board and I bet your gonna find Bad ones.

Joe(acejedi)

So, that means it's even more likely a problem under the playfield. Have you tried terryb's suggestion?

If the only connector you're removing is J12 and that causes the lights to go out, that leads back to the power driver board. Using the shotgun approach of replacing parts isn't very effective, and you can do more damage than good.

The best way to test whether the board has an issue without involving the playfield wiring is to use a single bulb with test leads you can connect to the PCB pins.

1. Remove J12 and J13.
2. Connect a test lead (wire with clips on the end) to J12-P1.
3. Connect the other end of the test lead to one contact of a bulb.
4. Connect a second test lead to J13-P5.
5. Connect the other end of the second test lead to the second contact of the bulb.

The bulb should react like the Fellowship insert would. Test mode is the best place to verify this. If it stays lit, you're seeing the same problem, and you can eliminate the playfield wiring as a cause. If it blinks, you'll know your board is OK.