No print today....bad stepper driver board

So, I think I'm ready for my first print. Just a final check of the motors to make sure nothing has changed since I last calibrated everything and then I'll be ready for a dry run, hopefully followed by a test print using plastic!

However, all is not well. The "Y" motor has been running rough on occasion in one direction. Platform movement seems to have almost equal resistance in each direction when I disable the stepper and just use my hand. Just in case, I put on some graphite oil to loosen up the movement anyway. No effect. Upon power-up the movement now only goes one direction in Jog even if Y+ or Y- is selected! This is getting strange. Time to do some reading and basic troubleshooting.

• Ok, maybe connectors vibrated loose or aren't set properly. Power down & Re-seat the connectors. The motor now only goes in one direction? Re-seat again. Try a jog again. Same effect.
• Ok, test to see if it's perhaps a communication problem with the PC. Restart Linux. Restart bot. Next attempt, no motor movement at all! Ok, go down a version and try using the "old" way of communicating that the previous release used. Reload firmware. Same effect. X and Z can jog but not Y. The stepper motor circuit lights like other boards but no movement.
• Ok, let's try a totally different software environment. Let's use the Windows Skienforge version instead. Boot into WinXP instead. Install software & prerequisites. Reload firmware. Still, no movement in the "Y" axis! OK, I still can't totally eliminate software as being a problem since the software is a port. However, I figure if it's something this bad, lots of people would be screaming about it on Google Groups. Try something else.
  
• Heyyyy. On the stepper motor board, I see a pot! Maybe it's out of adjustment? Try various positions. No effect. Light intensity changes but no matter what position is tried, no movement. However, I sometimes hear a high-frequency noise depending on the pot position.
• Ok, let's just make sure the ribbon cable and motor are good by using another controller board to drive the "Y" motor. Now, "Y" Movement is responsive! Looks like I have a bad driver board.
  

So, I try to order a replacement from Makerbot. Crap...the gen3 boards are out of stock. Whoa! So are ALL the gen3 electronic boards! Apparently, since the Cupcake is an end-of-life product, they ran out of boards! They say they are having more manufactured for a final run but they don't say a date other than "sometime in the spring". Fortunately, Ebay came through for me. So, this bad board incident is a small delay rather than a major setback.

Ok, but what if I didn't happen to find that replacement board on Ebay? In theory, I could etch a PCB board, find the parts and eventually make my own board. However, this is very expensive in terms of shipping and time. Fortunately, I don't need to go down that road right now.