OT: 2002 Pontiac wont start

I can hear the fuel pump energize when i turn on the key...that is what is weird. maybe the fuel filter suddenly decided to plug up...I don't know where to start and hope some of you can tell me where to look first and a troubleshooting procedure to rule out other things. Thanks.

It doesn't sound like a fuel pump or fuel filter; those usually give some warning it the form of hesitation or slow acceleration. But a fuel pressure test will quickly confirm that. A problem with the passkey system sounds plausible. I had a similar problem with a 2000 Blazer; it would just randomly refuse to start, but would usually start after a thirty minute wait. This issue, according to the dealer, was a bad ignition switch.

Is there maybe a timing issue? 100,000 miles used to be time for the camshaft sprocket to fail, but I haven't known that to happen to newer cars.

Sometimes this system loses it's marbles and does this.Are you using the same key as always?

You won the $69 question....LOL!

The problem was..... I had given my mother my spare key, so she could borrow the car. Nope, I had never used the spare:).

After reading the new posts....I went out, with MY key and Vrrrrooommm! First, I gave thanks to find the solution. Then I cursed the frikkin engineers who came up with this stroke of genius. One danged key will start this car...oh that's fine as long as I have the key. If it ever gets lost, I'm screwed.

But, in the meantime, I offer my deepest thanks to each and every one of you for your kind help.

Since it is so random, and that the car is relatively newer, I want you to check hard under the hood and make sure that no wires or lines of any kind have been cut, punctured, or chewed on by chipmunks or rats. This is very common if the car usually sits around for a few days at a time.

I checked the fuses in the under the hood fuse panel...all is well...and just for S&G's, changed them with the spares located in there.

The car has been faithful as an old hound, until today. It has a full tank of gas...always buy it at the same place (Chevron) and have never gotten any bad gas there. This place is near the Interstate they pump gazillions of gallons of gas. I filled up this morning before coming home...and I wondered if getting gas might have been a factor...but the drive home is 9 miles. Had there been bad gas, I doubt the car would have made it home running perfectly normal. It's parked on a level surface, by the way!

It seems that once the car was shut off...de-energizing the pump..was the end of things.

The car tries to start and will run maybe 3 seconds and then dies. I really think it's the fuel pump, but if there is something else that could be the problem, I'd look to for it. Thanks for the replies so far.