Sets of a certain model will all have the same problem with the same thing. Just search usenet and see if there are any other postings for the same model.

I did a couple year stint doing tv repair and most of the time I didn't even have to plug it in to know what's wrong.

Sonys have an overvoltage detector for the crt high volts. This is just a wire that wraps around the back side of the crt and plugs into the pcb. I've fixed it before just by unplugging that wire.