Yes, your board is probably fine. You don't need power on the orange wire (feature lamp buss) to get the game to boot. On the MPU you need 5V on TP5, 12V on TP2 and 43V on R113 to get it to boot. That's assuming the 5V buss on the SDU is stable. What does your machine do when you power it up?

You can unplug J1 on the rectifier board until you get the game to boot. Does the LED flash when you power up?

So the LED is on solid?

No, you don't need the battery at all. Check TP2 for 12V. Does the LED flicker or anything? Flicker would be good. If not, and you have 12V at TP2, then Q2 or the LED or both are bad.

Make sure its fixed by xmas.... So, I can play it.

Ok, so no power to the MPU until you get that fixed. Do you have 12V on SDU TP5?

Is this a Stern SDU or some other brand?

Ok I was reading the schematics wrong.

You do need the orange wire. It supplies unregulated 12V to the SDU where it's regulated to 5V for the logic. I got it confused with the blue wire for the feature lamp buss. Sorry about making you chase your tail.

You probably should start with repinning the connectors and replacing the header pins on the rectifier board.

Then we have to start looking at the SDU connectors and the regulator circuit.

0V for TP1 on rectifier, correct? Bridge BR1 is probably bad. Test AC volts, measure between points labeled E9 and E10 on rectifier, should read 7.8VAC. And I assume you verified fuse F1 is good, but you could also verify by testing between top of F1 and E10 for 7.8VAC. If voltage is good there, the bridge is bad.

Yes, J3. I would just follow the power all the way through. Disconnect SDU J3, make sure you read 12V on rectifier J3 pin 8 then check the other end of the orange wire on SDU J3 pin 12. There should be no difference with it disconnected. Did you repin SDU J3 too? May need to do that and check for cracked solder joints on the header pins.

Unless the pins inside the connector are broken, but it's more likely the driver board. What does TP5 read without J3 connected?

Probably the voltage regulator. Big Daddy and GPE sell rebuild kits.

What are your voltage readings?

TP3 seems a little high, but it's probably fine.

tp2 and tp4 on the rectifier are reading incorrectly on my machine. i dont know where to begin...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-quick-bally-driver-board-repair-bulletproofing/page/2#post-2113931

so if im not at all good at soldering, would you recommend sending it out to get fixed? and if so, where? i was looking at replacement boards, butt it would still involve soldering...

I think I would encourage you to learn how to solder.....I know.....

But there is ALWAYS a coil or transistor blowing in pinball, so unless you want to pay $75 a hour to have someone come come and do simple servicing, you really should learn.

The rectifier boards are so cheap brand new, that I can't really recommend you pay to ship/fix/ship for something so inexpensive. Just buy a new Rottendog or similar.

Are you part of a local pinball league or club or....?

i actually host the tourneys at the local arcade here and am also captain of the arcades pinball team, the specials when lit! i have a few people around i can ask for help, butt most are really busy this time of year. thank you for the quick replies and advice.

i have an old vcr i have been using to practice my soldering skills, butt i would be more comfortable working after i acquire better tools. just using a 25 watt pencil and desoldering braid...

Maybe buy a new rectifier board, bring the transformer and old board to the next meet up and have one of the guys solder in the new board for you.

DON'T remove the old board from the transformer, your tech will probably want to move one wire at a time to the new one.

Pay attention to how he works with the iron.

Give him the old board and a beer as a 'thank you' for saving your butt.

you have any recommendations on a replacement board? ive heard a few people say to stay away from rottendog. got the old boards and beer on standby!

Rottendog stuff is great.

Sure, anything that comes out v1.0 might have some oddball problem (like it works in Williams, but needs a ground mod for Dataeast), and guys love to cry about problems they had 4 years ago.

As a tech, I like seeing Rottendog stuff installed because they use "thru-hole" components, easy to work on in the field.

Just do some comparison before buying.
All of the replacement rectifier boards use thru-hole components.
Some of the boards provide more with their boards -- set of plugs, contacts, keys, standoffs, ties, etc.
Some of the boards provide safety components such as fuse covers (think electrocution and liability).
Some of the boards provide heat sinks on all three bridge rectifiers rather than just one or two.
Some of the boards have traces that are safely sized trace widths and thickness that conform to military standards (MIL-STD-275) -- think fire and liability.
Some of the boards have all high current traces making connection to connector pins on solder side of board (lots of original boards failed due to high current traces only on top of board).
Some of the boards use resistors that don't get quite as hot as the originals.
Some of the boards only use high quality tin-plated beryllium copper fuse clips.
Some of the boards include silkscreen marking on both top and bottom of board for "E" holes.
Some of the boards include redundant holes for E9 and E10 in addition to the standard E7 and E8.
Some of the boards are cheaper - but based on above, you get much less board for a little less money.

... and the one I don't like but have to mention:
Some of the boards are actually in stock more often.

i was checking some different ones out. i like the fact some come with the extra parts to rebuild my female connectors. GPE? do you guys have any in stock?

https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=135-105

These are good ones too.