Some like to keep things original, but I have been very happy with the Alltek board. Free play is nice.

Just my humble opinion, but I'd go with the Alltek. It's rock solid, and nice to have around if you have other Bally pins from the same era. It's worth the extra $$ to me.

i put allteks in everything they work in without even looking at the old mpu .. love them.

That's funny. I'm almost as gulity. I'll at least see of the original MPU boots. If not, or I see acid damage - hello Alltek.

I had a similar problem with my Centaur. No MPU, lots of lamps out on both my lamp boards.

You can't really go wrong with the Alltek boards as a whole - it'll make troubleshooting a little easier, and there's more protection built into those boards in case something decides to go poof.

Downside, of course, is the price.. but how badly do you want your Paragon to just work?

-G

Anybody know how hard it is to trace down a problem with the light controller? I have 3 inserts stuck on and a few others not working at all.

get the schematic, find which transistor control that light in the insert, change it.

Gov, lamps stuck on = bad scr.

I sell rebuilt original MPUs for $100. I have sold hundreds in the last few years and less than 1% come back for warranty work. When you fix a bally MPU correctly, they are rock solid.

I need to fix a fuse blowing issue on a stellar wars. Is there an alltek board for williams system 4 cpu?

Rebuilt MPUs are great if done correctly, I've even got some with a free play rom hack that work nicely. The alltek is rock solid also, so it's personal taste. Make sure if you get a "rebuilt" original mpu it is from a reputable supplier.

I always use original boards in my machines, original displays, original all around the most possible.
Repro or replacement only if i have no choice but i'm always chasing for original parts.

That keep the nice original 80's look and the value for the long term.

I run Allteks in all my Bally/Stern games. Can't beat the performance and the lifetime warranty. Also, the solenoid driver board has short circuit protection and other diagnostics that the original driver board doesn't have.

This does raise a good question. At what point does having repro boards impact value? I can see where a HEP or other high end restoration may be negatively impacted if the boards are not original, but what about the average 'player' pin? Are resale prices negatively impacted by having repro boards? I'm almost of the opposite mindset, in that if I was buying a 'player' pin, I may pay a bit more knowing is has reliable repro boards.

When original boards are restored correctly they are very reliable.
All my games runs with original boards and they all runs without a glitch for many years (some games more than 10 years now)