Vista won't Restart, i8042prt error

Hi folks, here's weird one.

I have a new computer (e6850, dual evga 8800 GT, 4gb, Vista Home Premium x64, 500gb HD) and it won't restart when using the Restart command, in fact, it won't Start every OTHER time. Yes, really.

It has no problem starting except on the ALTERNATING start-ups. This seems to be the main symptom that distinguishes this issue from other I have read about which tend to be "my computer won't start at all".

Here are the symptoms:

Scenario 1
Start Windows, it boots up, screen on, Bios flashes by, Windows comes up OK. Perfect.
Restart
Windows shuts down, screen off, hard drive works for a bit, but the box never shuts off (it shouldn't), the screen is dark, BIOS doesn't flash by (I think it doesn't run) and Windows doesn't come back. Have to do a hard off on the power button to shut down.
If I power the box up again now, everything is good and Windows loads up fine.

Scenario 2
Power up the box. Everything comes up fine.
Shut Down, it shuts down fine.
Power up the box, hits the hd, no screen, no BIOS, no Windows
Hard power off to turn off box
Power up the box, everything comes up fine.

I have repeated these steps about 10 times each, absolutely consistent behavior each time.

Started looking at Event Viewer and discovered I am getting this error each time there is a failure: The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load: i8042prt.

From various searches, including this forum, this appears to be the PS/2 keyboard/mouse port driver. I am using a USB keyboard (Dell) and a USB mouse (Microsoft Intellimouse).

I am NOT using a KVM (one solution said to stop using a KVM).

I have tried substituting the USB keyboard/mouse for a PS/2 keyboard and mouse with PS/2 adapter and there was no change.

I tried changing the i8042prt registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\ from 1 to 4, with no change.

I checked my BIOS and verified that "legacy USB" support is enabled. There didn't seem to be any option for enabling or disabling PS/2 port support.

Starting to run out of ideas. Is there a way for me to disable or bypass this driver? I don't need PS/2 support. Is there a way to update the driver without going through a whole install? Anything else?

Thanks so much.

Dave
davehunt00

To me that error, along with the issues you are experiencing, screams of a motherboard going bad. How old is the motherboard? Still under warranty?

Thanks, Richard, for the reply.

It is brand new (like less than a week old). I have the warranty option, but I was hoping there might be a simpler solution I'm overlooking.

Dave

i have got in the last 2 days a BSOD and the only odd thing i find in the logs is that driver i8042prt error, my computer is only 3 months old. has done it 2 times only over 2 days wierd considering its a ps2 driver according to Microsoft and i use wireless keyboard/mouse. any thoughts?

I checked for any updates but havn't had any that could affect it, the only thing that has changed is a major patch in my game World of Warcraft but it was running fine for days before this happened.

Funny thing is it BSOD 2 times over 2 days but nothing since then? Wierd