When the power button is pressed the fan turns on and it sounds like it's all going fine. Then the Ready light (green) turns off and the fan runs for about a minute then the fan turns off and the ready light turns on again as if i never turned it on. i can do this over and over and i get no new results. i tried unplugging it for 3 hours and attempting again. Note: (no light ever comes out of the projector so i can't access menu or anything. I never saw the "Lamp replace light come on either.) What can i do? is it dusty? is the lamp needing replacement? is there a combination of buttons that can fix this?

Power supply issue. the caps probably dried up. you'll need to replace the power supply. it is a good idea to blow the dust out of it with canned air.

I suspect it isn't a power issue, but possibly a board issue. I have a lc-xnb2uwm that gives the similar behavior: plug it in and the lamp LED glows red. Green ready light comes on a bit later. Push the power button and the fan kicks in, but shuts down after a minute. Nothing out of the lens/bulb. Menu doesn't display.
Unplugged it and opened it up. I found a circuit board in the back left (over the AV ports) had a handful of ICs that looked partially melted. No other noticeable issues in the chassis at all. Without a schematic, it's hard to walk all the boards and they are really crammed in there, but I think it's a logic issue (unless the resolution coming out of your computer and to the projector is wrong). You can write http://www.eiki.com/ and see if they have any ideas, too. I'm looking for a spare model of mine for parts to try some board swapping. If it was a power issue, I suspect the thing wouldn't come on at all.