This is simply not true, i have repaired many pinball 2000 Prism cards and motherboards. It is very rare that either cannot be repaired or become too costly to repair. Just because it is a PC motherboard does not mean it cant be repaired. Please dont let people scare you from buying or keeping a machine because it runs on a PC.
Not to discredit your statement, just interested in how you go about those repairs. Do particular components fail and how do you go with obtaining the suitable parts for these repairs? Also, I haven't heard of anybody repairing the Prism card - wonder why owners experiencing failures haven't sought repair, rather look for replacements?
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Its very rare a custom part fails on these things, its almost always some off the shelf glue logic chips that are the problem. The motherboards have the usual electrolytic cap issues that most boards have and if caught in time don't cause any damage. The other most common issue is the Super i/o chip which is very easy to find and replace. The prism card contains a couple of chips that are not readily available but still can be sourced but the majority of components on that board are off the shelf items that can be found and replaced. Of course this is just a few examples of what goes.
When i came into this industry i found exactly as you describe ( people look for replacements over repair). I put this down to the fact the boards are SMD components and have the stigma of not being serviceable when in reality the majority of repairs to anything surface mount is far easier than any through hole repairs. It is true that SMD components are sometimes harder to find as their build life is always shorter but harder does not make impossible. The prism card is nothing special it just has a bad reputation from all the people who condemn the part mostly from what ive seen in online forums.
People seem to demonize anything with SMD components and so it has become the norm to source a replacement. Most of it due to technicians not keeping their skills up to date and telling customers that their board is un repairable because its all SMD components. Most of the boards i repair come from customers who have been told that the board ( Insert whatever board) is beyond repair because its either more than the one drive transistor they usually replace or due to it having SMD parts or custom chips being blamed as the culprit when the repair just gets too hard..
