Maybe something else??
I would start to experiment with different cheatcodes. You appear to have SATA drives and if the optical drive is also SATA, it could possibly cause some issues. Not too certain of that since I have only hearsay to guide me there. I somehow feel the need to be careful not to say anything without disclaimers since the Gods appear restless these days and possibly in dire need to make the switch to decaf. I would try to load the specific NV drivers at startup (xmodule=nv), also try noapic, nodhcp, noswap, noagp, toram since the cd will apparently fit in your 1G RAM, and so on. Just follow the conventions detailed in the cheatcode documentation and have at it. Make note of any error mesages, or displayed text on the screen at the time it locks up. I would also be sure to give it ample time to complete the boot. If it goes for a half hour, I would assume it's long enough and it actually is locked up. I can't tell you to check your drive cables and jumper settings, since it could cause certain people to have a rash, but if you wanted to, you could just double check. I also shouldn't suggest that you might try a "known good" drive cable for your optical drive. There was one individual recently with some hard drive issues that resolved his concern by swapping out the cable. If you disconnect and reconnect the cables on occasion, it might be good advice, but certainly not if it comes from my direction. I also will not mention to check your system/cpu clock speeds and memory settings to see if they are not too aggressive.

I apologize for the cryptic references I have made here about not making recommendations, etc. The environment has apparently become toxic for me in this forum at the moment. Please let us know how you make out. If you don't get it resolved, please post here again so someone might be able to assist you further.