on my system (and never will). I have experienced both of those conditions, the stuck boat on the loading screen and the "infinite hourglass" with my old machine (1.7Ghz Celeron/GEforce 5400 126MBRAM/WinXP SP2) and my new system (Dual Core 2.5Ghx P4/GEForce 8400 GS 512MB RAM/WinXP SP3).
I don't think it is confined to Vista, however, I am wondering if I have applied your patch to MM9. I know I have all the other MM's patched with it, but am not sure about MM9 so I will repatch my MM9 and try again.