Today I received my Alltek ultimate solenoid board and installed it in my Stern Meteor. I start up the machine and start a game. Everything is working and playing fine then all of a sudden the displays start flashing, the game locks up and eventually resets. I power cycle the game and do a memory clear on the mpu board. I restart the game and go into the self test and run it through the tests a few times and again it locks up with the displays flickering. I tried reseating all the connectors and ran the tests again with the same results. Finally I put my old solenoid board back in, and now the runs without issue.

My question is whether the new solenoid board is bad, or is there something else I could be missing? Any insight is appreciated.

My existing solenoid board was actually working just fine before I put in the new board. I'm doing a resto, and was updating that since it already had a new APU and I was putting in the lighting board to allow for swapping to LEDs. After the swap, I was able to start a game or run tests, but it would eventually lock up, and never at what I could perceive was the same point to allow me to troubleshoot a single component.

Since I removed the ultimate solenoid driver and put the old original board back in, it hasn't had an issue. I can run it through all the tests, and it doesn't doesn't lock up.

Could the rectifier have an issue that would cause it to fail with the ultimate solenoid board, but still work with the old bally board?

All the new boards are alltek, except for the Bally solenoid board I had to swap back in.

I did notice when installing the new SDB that the connectors felt looser. I’ll have to grab the calipers and see if maybe the pins are a slightly different gauge. At this point I might swap out the rectifier board with the $55 one from Pinballlife and try to figure out what connectors and crimpers I need to redo the connections at the SDB

I get that sentiment if the game is all original in good condition, but when the game cabinet gets repainted, plastics, playfield, and back glass and replaced with reproductions, I don’t see any point in striving for originality or authenticity over modern reliability.

Well this got out of hand in a hurry. I have a new rectifier board on order and some pins to rebuild some of the connectors. I'll be a little while before I get to that step. My current status:

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Good to know. Once I put it all back together I’ll reach out if I’m still having troubles.