WinXP (SP2) temporary freeze during boot

[SpamMagnet]

After performing a clean installation of Windows XP with (slipstreamed) SP2, my system now freezes for ~20 seconds during WinXP startup on the logo screen with the animated "progress bar". The logo screen is usually barely visible when the freeze occurs due to the way it fades in, but the timing varies and it can freeze with the screen completely blank before the fade-in begins.

I experimented with a few hardware and driver (un)install scenarios, and I'm reasonably sure the problem is caused by the nVidia IDE drivers. If I remove them, the system boots normally without freezing.

The latest nForce drivers from both nVidia (5.10.2600.0412) and MSI (5.10.2600.0446) have the same freezing problem. I filled out a tech support request with MSI and will post any useful response I may receive in this thread.

System specs (as relevant to IDE troubleshooting):

MSI K8N Neo FSR (nForce3 250gb)
Western Digital WD800JB (primary master)
Plextor PX-116A DVD-ROM (secondary master)
Plextor PX-708A DVD+/-RW (secondary slave)

 

[SpamMagnet]

After nearly 3 weeks without any response from MSI [see below], I finally found some time to diagnose the problem myself. The solution turned out to be surprisingly simple: swap the master/slave settings for the DVD-ROM and DVD+/-RW drives on the secondary IDE channel.

However, this swap shouldn't be necessary in the first place since both optical drives use the same transfer mode (Ultra DMA 2) and they both worked flawlessly with my Pentium 4 motherboard using the original jumper settings.

I wish I could make Nvidia aware of this issue in case the problem could be fixed with a driver update, but they obviously don't provide direct support for their reference drivers.

Trying to report anything to MSI appears to be a dead end as well. After receiving no response to my first problem submission, I tried again using a different email address on the slim chance that they were simply unable to reach me. They have yet to acknowledge either request. :disgust:

Oh well, I can always hope some forum readers will find this post helpful...