Intermittant No Start

[tomtom72]

I need all the no start experts please.....

The symptoms that were witnessed are as follows:

Key over to start position and all the DIC lights come on, but the center LCD is scrambled. The "security" light flashed, and the horn sounded with extremely low volume, so low a volume that you almost would have missed it if there wasn't total silence. No starter solenoid clicks, no starter noise of any kind.

DVOM check of the battery by the owner yielded 12.5v. Also, something else that seems very strange to me, the owner tried to hook up his float charger and the charger refused to charge the battery after the initial "no start" event?

Of course about 45 minutes later the car started like nothing was wrong.

I didn't witness the events. All this was relayed to me via phone calls. The battery is a GM/delco that is 3 yrs old. I may not have the sequencing exactly correct with the scrambled LCD display as my bro makes his own wine and the symptoms relayed to me were after the car started. The first phone call was merely a declarative "the ******* car won't start, and I can't charge the battery!" I will endeavor to obtain a more accurate account of the events. I would like to know if I am correct in wanting to start with the battery or should I start with the clutch switch or the VATS system?

TIA

Tom