Dishwasher Malfunction?

I have a three year old Magic Chef dishwasher. About once a week (or every third time trying to use it), it goes nutty. Nothing happens when you hit the buttons - doesn't start. It gets power just fine because the "delay wash" lights will light up - in fact, they will light up and flash, but then that's it - they shut right back off. This will go on for a couple of days, and then out of the blue, when I push the "start" button again, it will run - with me having done nothing to the actual dishwasher. Any ideas? Nothing in the troubleshooting portion of the manual at all. In fact, that manual was worthless.