How to troubleshoot occasional failure to boot?

Question

This only happens 10-20% of the time, which makes it tough for me to analyze.

Basically, when I try to wake the PC from sleep or try to boot shortly after turning it off completely, nothing happens. Hardware starts for a fraction of a second and turns off again (as it would with power shut off).

On sleep, the Power LED continues blinking and I see a short flicker on my keyboard every time I press a key. Power or Reset button do nothing.

The problem usually goes away after taking the PC off power for 5+ minutes, but it still kinda bothers me.

Is there anything I can look into to see what's at fault here?

Specs:

GPU: Recently switched from 5870 to R9 290. Problem persists
CPU: X4 955
MB: Asus M4A78
PSU is an oldish beQuiet with 530W

possible duplicate of How to troubleshoot a computer not booting up when powered on? — DavidPostill, Jun 15 '15 at 16:13
Yeah, I had that problem (machine running, but no POST), too, a few weeks ago. Clearing CMOS fixed it, but the sleep grumpiness persists. — gstieglitz, Jun 15 '15 at 16:35
At what age of the computer the problem where PC is unable to wake after sleep started to appear? (and what do you mean by sleep grumpiness?) — miroxlav, Aug 21 '15 at 17:23
Bought the key components about five years ago, and I've probably had boot issues after sleep for 2 or 3 years. Sleep grumpiness just means the issue described, inability to wake up in sleep mode. Doesn't appear to be a pure sleep issue though, booting immediately after shutdown (turning off and on again) also fails sometimes in the same manner. — gstieglitz, Aug 23 '15 at 17:17

How to troubleshoot occasional failure to boot?

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