I know it's awful not having sound, especially on this game. I've owned WMS machines for decades and never had an issue (knock on wood) where it's actually a component on the board itself. WMS may have it's weaknesses, but the boards have tended to be proven strong. The troubleshooting manual is pretty useless when it's for home use games, they're meant for machines that are on 24/7 for months at a time in a rough casino (smoke/physically battered) environments. And unless you're an expert at soldering these wicked small components, I wouldn't risk further damage.
You seem to have narrowed it down to the I/O board, that is good news, the problem followed the board which is what you want. I know these may sound silly yet they're easily overlooked, but to get more 'easy' stuff out of the way 4 things to check are 1) look for any foreign matter on the top and bottom of the board. Tape (big one!), any little piece of matter that could cause an unintentional bridge connection, and just anything that just shouldn't be there. 2) examine the bigger caps for any bulging (unusual, but not impossible). I haven't run into this issue, but it could cause problems if you have them. 3) check the pins on the board going to the blind connector for any that are bent or missing, that would definitely be a problem. 4) examine closely the traces on the board for any broken ones. Someone else had this issue on another machine earlier, and it really good some narrowing down to find it. They bridged it with wire and problem solved.
If none of these applied to your situation, your best bet would be to try to find a replacement board. They are hard to come by, and tend to be pricey when they do. But they do appear time to time. Currently there's a bunch of Video I/O boards on there, be careful you don't buy those. Keep checking and stock up on whatever you can get your hands on. They haven't made these parts in over 25 years.