Flickering and then nothing

Well, seven years on a SONY is pretty good. These chassis have a good number of plugs and jacks on the main board. If you feel competent enough to open the back of the set, I'd go to Radio shack and buy a can of electronic components cleaner and a can of compressed air. Then, with the cover removed, find the plug that goes to the deflection coil on the neck of the tube. It should have four to six large wires on it. Disconnect the plug and lightly spray the EC cleaner on the plug and jack. If you have an old toothbrush, scrub the pins where they're exposed. Absorb any excess fluid with a paper towel and then blow the connctors dry with the air. Reassemble and test the set. If this doesn't work, your going to have to probe the other connectors with a wooden dowel rod while the set is on. PLEASE be careful around any High Voltage components!
There's probably a good layer of dust inside the set as well. This layer can act as a blanket and cause components to overheat so carefully cleaning this out with a vacume wouldn't hurt.

Hope this helps. Thanks for rating the solution.