Quick optimisation that I discovered...

If a DVD is left in the drive, I was finding that occassionally the HTPC wouldnt come out of sleep properly - the CPU and fan would start up, but the screen would remain black. This would happen maybe 1 time in 10.

I changed a couple of things - firstly, the DVD drive was set as the first boot device... I changed this to the third device. Secondly, I turned on Quick Boot in the BIOS.

Quick Boot for some reason skips some of the POST, so there is no beep.

To be honest, I'm not sure which one solved the problem - I think it was probably setting the DVD to not be the first boot device... but it hasnt black screened on me since, and that was two weeks ago I made the change.

At some stage I'll turn quick boot off again and see - but the HTPC rarely ever gets completely shut down, so there is not very often I would hear the POST beep.

Useful tip in case other people are having the same problem.