Pedro, When I say symptoms I did not include the 5 flash code, but it was occurring for both issues(resistor spec and blue lamp). I believe this 5 flash code is indicating that the auto-shutoff feature for the lamps has been activated and that is about it. Again, with multiple reasons why this feature is activated, I think it is difficult to debug as a consumer. I don't think that the price they gave you was unreasonable given parts and labor. Even if it is a board resistor spec issue, they replace the board not the resistors on the board. My only complaint is that now that Sony is out of the repair business, they TV doesn't go back on warantee like it did when I had the first problem... Guy

I've had 2 problems now with this set in the past 6 years. One thing I've realized about this set is that if you bought it when they first came out, there were several quality issues that were not debugged by the Japanese customers. I lived in Japan for 2.5 years and came to know that while Sony in Japan is a huge corp it is not seen as the quality vendor that US customers see it as. This is simply because Sony 'tests' new equip on the Japan market before launching in the US. They can't do this with the large rear screen TVs however because no one in Japan will buy them due to living space concerns. So once I realized that, I wasn't so disappointed in the problems I've experiences. All in all a good high end set that has lasted longer than most plasma or LCDs would have and I loath the front side projectors... The problems: 1) Some resistors on the board controlling the auto-shutoff feature for the 3 bulbs were out of spec. This took forever to debug and the Sony guy was 100% japanese and couldn't speak that much english. That's about all I could translate from his statements. 2) Just had a blue lamp go out on me and replaced it for around $600 bucks. It was an odd issue because the symptoms were very similar... As TV warmed up over about 15 minutes, the picture would start blinking out for a bit, then come back, and frequency of blinking went up as the set stayed on for longer. Again the circuitry controlling the auto-shutoff features were kicking in because of some internal issue in the bulb. They were not able to debug what the internal problem. It seems to me that the above 2 issues resulting in very similar symptoms mean that it is very hard for the consumer to debug the problem without a technican or the service manual to guide the way. I don't have a service manual but I'd guess you'd need some additional equip for testing purposes as well. My advice if you don't have the proper diagnostic equipment and the service manual then get ahold of one of the Sony authorized repair centers and get someone to look at it.