halt at "BIOS data check" using nvraid

[z0idb3rg]

when my system boots normally i see the nvidia raid screen detect a healthy raid array after post, then lilo or boot from cd.

after booting into the gentoo livecd (or knoppix for that matter) and subsequently restarting the system, the nvidia raid screen detects an error with the raid array. this is resolved by powering down and restarting the system.

i'm only able to successfully boot my installed gentoo (which is not on the raid array) when i get the error with the array on the nvidia raid screen. if i try booting gentoo when it detects a healthy array (i.e. after cold restart), gentoo boot halts as follows:
1. select gentoo from lilo
2. "Loading Gento............."
3. "BIOS data check" [stops here]

i've tried messing with the kernel to no avail. as i said, gentoo boots fine when the nvidia raid screen detects an error with the array (though the array isn't detectable / mountable of course) after loading a linux livecd and rebooting!

configuration is as follows:
- gigabyte ga-7n400s-l mainboard (nforce2 chipsets)
- SATA drive with NTFS (winxp), SWAP, and ext3 (gentoo) partitions
- 2 x IDE disks in nvidia raid0 striped configuration (NTFS storage partition)

any help in resolving this issue would be much appreciated.