Electronic viewfinder doesn't work

Assign as an eye comes close to the view finder, the viewfinder should switch on and the display should switch off. When it really does not work correct, I would cal a Sony service centre close to me (in your case one close to you.)

did you go to the authorised service centre for sony. Cause so many parts cant just go kaput at the same time...

It sounds like the mechanical lever in your camera that normally couples the aperture to the camera to lock it to the widest opening for focusing is locked into the fully closed position, or that the electronics are not allowing the lens to open to fully open, depending on the type of lense being used.

Also, it could be an issue with the lense.

The simple way to test this will be to remove the lense, and to rotate the aperture ring while looking through the lense. If you see the aperture getting larger/smaller the lense aperture is fine. If it is not - the lense is damaged and needs to be replaced, or at best serviced. This can be done through Nikon, a local shop if you have one, or through online shops, I'd recommend KEH Camera in Atlanta if you have to go that way.

To test the camera side, if the lense appears to be working is also simple for the mechanical lever. With the lense removed, hold the camera in front of you looking into the lense mount. On the left side, you should see a small lever like piece. With your finger, see if this piece will move downward - it is spring loaded and should smoothly go down and pop back up. If it doesn't go down, or doesn't spring right back up, then the issue is on the camera mechanical side.

If both of those check fine, you may try a manual focus Nikon mount lense if you have access to one - to eliminate the camera electronics from being an issue, and the lense from being an issue as if this lense doesn't work, it's a mechanical issue. If you have access to another AF lense you know is working, and it doesn't work on your camera, you've narrowed it down to either the mechanical lever, or the electronics.

Most likely culprit is the lense itself.

There is two ways to view your "taking picture" with the LCD and with the viewfinder, you can shut the LCD off to save battery power and use the viewfinder and that is what I think has happened. a touch of the DISP button and it will switch from the LCD to the viewfinder. here is a diagram

Diagram

With you saying the LCD is working for functions but not for taking pictures this is what I suspect is the problem.

In short, no. Spares are generally no longer available and expensive when they are.

But there are huge numbers of broken A1's and A2's which sell for near-nothing on auction websites which may be purchases as spares donors. The viewfinder lenses on both models are identical, although the actual electronic EVF display is different. Ask the right questions and buy wisely and you'll also end up with spare batteries and all the body covers which might have been lost from yours for no extra cost.

Impossible! the viewfinder on this camea is not electronic. it is optical, impossible to see the pictures you already took. anyways, try pushing disp.

I followed the directions that were posted on the free suggestions on your site:
Turn the camera on in viewfinder mode. Turn it off and turn it upside down in your hand.
Smack the bottom of the camera several times with your other hand.
Turn it back over and turn it back on. It took me three tries, but voila, on the third try, it worked!
I could see through the viewfinder again.

sounds like the LCD screen viewfinder may have been twisted or accidentally catched or got hooked or snagged on on something at one stage and pulled something, if the screen went yellow it means the three wires going to it are possibly broken or the small white clip was slowly coming undone inside the Viewfinder for the red and green to no longer work to complete the image also indicates why the buttons on the viewfinder are not responding, try twisting the viewfinder very lightly whilst on, but most likely the small white clip holding the wires has come off at the elbow inside the camera

Is the viewfinder set to auto?

Auto turns it on or off when the LCD is flipped out to save energy. Look through your menus for this setting. If there's some problem the camera is having recognizing when the LCD is flipped out or not, this would solve not being able to use the eyepiece.

If you turn on the back LCD, the electronic viewfinder will remain on while in a shooting mode. There is no setting on the camera to use only the back LCD monitor while shooting. If you playback images in the Play mode, only the LCD monitor will turn on. However, if you press the Monitor button while in the Play mode, than the back LCD monitor will turn off. The image will display only in the viewfinder LCD.