Got my original and repaired board back from brzezicki in the mail today. Plugged it in and it fired right up! (I honestly wasn't very hopeful at this point, lol)
brzezicki is 'da man!

Ran it for about four hours, powered it on and off at least 10 times and played a bunch of games and it seems rock solid! I'll probably do the trackball rebuild Friday. This is a hard game, can't believe someone marathoned it for 50+ hrs! lol. The other board I bought that didn't work from a fellow KLOV'er is going to refund me as soon as he receives the board back from me so he's a first class seller/KLOV'er. So there's a happy ending to this story after all!