2000 boot very slow with no net cable

I have a Toshiba Tecra 8100 with Win2000 and a 3com fe575 10/100 PC Card. If I boot without the net cable inserted, Win2000 stalls for about 5min during the boot process. If I insert the cable during this time, the PC continues booting. Only seems to happen with this card, yet all our laptops use the same config. I have tore the OS apart trying to figure it out.