Problems with lock up during boot?

I have just upgraded a computer to Win98 so the owner could use a digital camera with the computer. On boot up though the computer would lock up at the splash screen every time. I could boot into safe mode though so I tried everything I could think of. Disabling all devices, going into msconfig and trying various selective startup options, physically removing all devies such as the vid card, com ports, etc even the mouse and keyboard connections. In the end I upgraded direct to WinME and that managed to fix the problem and I was able to boot the machine.

However then I added a PCi usb2.0 card and on the first boot after it installed the drivers the computer locked up again. I went through all the steps I tried above including following many MS knowledge base articles on trouble shooting boot up problems but I cannot get the computer to boot up unless I remove the pci-usb card (Which is needed for the camera.) I even tried a different drive with Win98 installed but still no luck getting it to bootup.

Here are the specs of the machine

Asus sp97v motherboard
48mbram
200mhz Pentium
3 gig hdd
2meg vid card.

Anyone know what else I could try?

You are talking very old and bare minimum processor here...

you could try updating bios but in reality you may need a bigger processor with a tad more ram

Problem is they only use the computer for e-mail and to type letters so do not want to spend the money to upgrade. I think I may have found the problem though. I checked my suppliers catalogue and the usb1.1 card said Win95 onwards. However the usb 2 card didn't say anything. I assumed it would be okay for a 200mhz Pentium. I have since checked the specs and it requires a 266mhz and above.
Think I will give him the option of using the slower usb card or upgrading.

Ya. I wouldn't worry too much about USB 2.0 - I'm sure another card would work just fine. Sounds like the freezing might be some sort of hidden conflict as well...