Unusual boot-up

[Mikcannon]

Since I purchased the Asus M4N98 TD evo, I have gotten used to the way it boots up.
The monitor light turns from green to orange because the BIOS is always slow to start.
Then the light goes green again then the black screen shows the beginning of the BIOS.
So the OS eventually loads.

I have had four instances when the monitor light goes from green to orange and the tower runs [lights, fans, etc.]
After a long time I realized the monitor light remained orange.
[Damn, I said. Not the bad word] and pressed the power button.
Instant turn off. Huh? The BIOS obviously had not loaded.
One other time, this happened and I had to hold the button for four seconds. Seems like the BIOS had loaded but nothing more.
And another time it all happened except I was holding the button in and at about the three second mark I started to get the BIOS boot showing so I quickly removed digit from button. Proper boot up occurred then.
I'm hoping some people have some inkling of what the hell is going on here.
Pleeeaaassee ............... ?

[grunger]

Sounds like a POST test not completing or a component not being ready in time for POST.

Most likely suspect is RAM, but not necassarily faulty RAM, just some modules/board combos can be a bit picky, are the timings correct?

The other likely candiate is an overclock failure

Is the BIOS current?

[Mikcannon]

The gremlin got the boot.

The problem was a USB external drive attached during bootup.
I removed the external drive so all should be good.
My son had a USB stick in his rig when he booted up one time and it did the same thing.
Thanks again. PS: Gonna check the BIOS version but I believe it is latest.

[Mufflore]

I was going to suggest that, I have a USB pen that causes a double post if its plugged in at boot, resetting my overclock, grr.