I recently had several of the 97 Honda Accord starting problems discussed above including quotes of several hundreds of dollars to replace many parts of the electrical, starter and ignition systems it was a very frustrating experience that had a very simple answer. I changed my keys to the second backup key that I had never used and to my amazement all the startup problems went away. In discussions with a key locksmith he pointed out that Honda makes its keys out of a soft Aluminum alloys and the ignition key mechanism is a case hard steel, over time the steel wears down the soft key and slight misalignments with the key develop that result in multiple confusing startup problems. Immediately upon this discovery, I had the locksmith make me several copies of my never before used backup key, all of which work great. The result was a cost of $25 for the new duplicate keys, compared to the estimates that I had received for hundreds of dollars potential cost for major repairs. Try my solution, I hope it works...