MaLa + Ultimarc PACDRIVE = Crash every startup

[camsauce]

I've been struggling with a bug using MaLa.  I've got an XP machine running MaLa 1.74.  I have setup MaLa as a replacement shell to explorer.exe and I have also just used it on top of the shell using the 'start with windows' option in MaLa.  The first time the application runs at startup it crashes.  I can subsequently open the app up again without changing anything and it runs fine.  Through vast troubleshooting, I have narrowed the issue down to having the Ultimarc Pacdrive enabled to light up my led buttons.  If I remove all the hardware configurations in MaLa it starts up just fine.  I tried enabling MaLa's debug logging so I could get more details on the crash.  What is strange is that when debugging is enabled I don't get the crash.  I have a suspicion that the crashes are being caused by how the hardware is initialized.  The logs I do have indicate an object access error when making a HIDCTLDEVICECHANGE call.

Has anyone seen this, have any suggestions to nip this one?

[BadMouth]

I've never bothered shelling, but it sounds like a service the Pacdrive is dependent on isn't loaded yet when Mala tells it to start working.
The launch of Mala needs to be delayed somehow, probably through a batch file or compiled autohotkey script.

[camsauce]

I've had similar thoughts.  I have booted to the desktop and have waited some time followed by opening Mala and the same thing happens.  It's a real head scratcher.

[loadman]

You could try adding delay via options-gui-display- and increase splash screen time 5000 ?

... and do send me a section of the logs so at least I can make it crash more gracfully or add logging to find out why it's breaking