Long boot up time on MSI netbook when Kingston micro SD adapter installed

Found a strange symptom on a MSI netbook with Windows 7 Starter OS; it would take a long time to boot up. After the initial Windows splash display, the screen would go blank, and take several minutes to come back to the logon screen.

After many trials with reloading the whole drive, checking disks, finally isolated it to the presence of the Kingston micro SD adapter, but without a micro SD card in the adapter.

Without a flash card in the adapter, it apparently tries to access it regardless, and hangs things up for a long time. Removed the adapter, and it booted and shut down almost instantly in comparison.

The adapter is not a simple pass through of the micro SD card, so if there is no flash card installed, leave it unplugged, or it may slow things down considerably.

Didn't find anything on a search related to this symptom and problem, so I thought I'd note it just in case anyone else runs into this situation, maybe save them some time troubleshooting...