I'm having this problem too with compact flash via an IDE adapter on a server but not with USB flash on a laptop. The server won't boot from USB, and I don't have a cf-usb adapter that can be booted from on the laptop, but if I copy the files from one to the other the usb always works on the lapotp and the CF never works on the server.

on the server it boots and I can ping both ways, I can connect the the https and get the warning about the SSL cert, but the page comes up blank.

server is a single AMD MP 2000+ on a k7d master with 1GB ram and a 3ware 7xxx raid controller. RAM and other diag tests all pass.