Quoted from terryb:I'm missing where there's an LM339 in the matrix circuitry on the driver board?
Not saying there can't be other causes (although looking unlikely if the problem goes away when the ribbon cable is disconnected), but there is literally no other components in that circuit on the PDB other than the opto-isolators. It would take less than 5 minutes to test them as I described earlier.
LM339 is used for the old-style flipper switch detection ... basically, when the cabinet flipper switch is pressed to engage the flipper, the current for the flipper coils passes through an optocoupler.
this optocoupler is then connected to a LM339 voltage comparator which, in turn, is connected to the switch matrix via the column/row signals contained on the CPUPower Driver ribbon cable.
These row returns, along with Zero Crossing, are the only signals that are returned to the CPU from the power driver ... everything else is a one way output only signal.
Anyways - this makes that circuity very easy to isolate : unplug the ribbon cable, and it's isolated.
Yeah, all the lamps/coils will go dark, but if you're diagnosing switch matrix issues, you don't care about that stuff anyways.