To bring this back up, I think I've got it fixed!

I was thinking about my tests I had done, and I thought that maybe the TV was smart enough to know if someone defeated the block. And since I had, it wasn't working for me.

I tried to order the replacement part from a few places, but no one would sell it to me! "Oh, thats a high voltage part, we can't sell you that unless you are an authorized service center." "You sure? I know what I'm doing." "It doesn't matter, we could lose our parts contract with Sony if we did!"

But I finally found Sony's own parts center: http://servicesales.sel.sony.com/web/index.jsp

And lo and behold, I placed an order, and it arrived! How odd, that Sony would sell me the 'dangerous' part, but no one else would...

BTW, the new part number is 1-230-712-23, and its white and orange, instead of red and clear. Physically, however, it is the same size and shape, with the same connections and inputs, and Hstat control.

It was a royal pain removing the red flyback wire from the original block, but I finally got it.

The TV has now been running for about 3 hours continuously, without a hickup! Thats the longest its gone in MONTHS, so I'm inclined to think that its fixed.

I owe you guys a long-distance beer or something. I gave myself an ultimatum the other day. I was going to buy this 48$ part, and if it didn't work, I was going to take the Sony to the dump, and go buy a new direct view HDTV with the longest replacement plan they would sell me. My credit card is happy that this solution seems to be working! Now I don't need a new TV!

Thanks for all the help.

Peace,
sam