My ST Premium is having an issue that I'm hoping someone can help me resolve as I haven't been able to find any past threads/posts that deal with this specifically nor the subject of Stern LED boards in general.

All of the center inserts (Shoot Again, The Captain's Chair, modes, and photon torpedos) no longer light up except for a few seconds when I first start up the game after it has been off for an extended time, or a brief time later during an occasional game.

These inserts are collectively lit by 3 connected LED boards that are fed by a single cable. I've checked all applicable connections and boards back to the backbox source and substituted cables without finding anything. All boards appear to be getting power as the red LED signal lamp is flashing on each.

Anyone else experienced this problem with their ST? Any help or recommendations for diagnosing this would be appreciated!

They don't light in the lamp tests. No other applicable tests or alerts that I can see.

I thought that this might be the problem too, but I tried substituting CAT 5 cables and it didn't fix the issue.

I'm figuring that since these inserts' LEDs work normally in attract mode for about 5-10 seconds (before then going dead) when the game has been off a while, that the issue is probably in a control board (?). My electrical knowledge is pretty much limited to basics/EMs though and I have no idea how to diagnose circuit board/component source issues (other than substituting another board).

Stern tech's best guess is the driver board that feeds all of the center inserts' LEDs. Unfortunately, I'm currently unaware of how to test it and buying a replacement is a potentially expensive risk (game is out of warranty) if it's not the problem.

As the LEDs have now typically begun working once the game has been on for 10 minutes or so (?!), I'm standing by on purchasing a new driver board for the time being.

Thanks for the info! (Gotta admit that I had to look up VNB and VCC though as those are new to me.)

I'll look at measuring these.