diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b8d0fd4b..f4265c3c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ the frozen-backend fallback mirror it for their toolchains.
 
 ### Fixed
 
+- The setup splash now waits through the backend's full startup budget instead of reporting slow Windows CUDA initialization as stuck after two minutes (#1749)
 - Dubbing jobs can now reuse every source-language code produced by automatic ASR detection without a 400 error on the next upload (#1737)
 - Incomplete Sherpa-ONNX model snapshots now self-repair before recognizer startup instead of failing on a missing ONNX file (#1733)
 - OmniVoice subprocess startup now allows slow packaged Windows Python runtimes to signal readiness before termination (#1711)
diff --git a/frontend/src/components/BootstrapSplash.jsx b/frontend/src/components/BootstrapSplash.jsx
index 5dd5d03d..8229dc6d 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/BootstrapSplash.jsx
+++ b/frontend/src/components/BootstrapSplash.jsx
@@ -938,7 +938,12 @@ export function useBootstrapStage(pollMs = 1000) {
     // person can leave.
     const stallBudgetMs = (stage) => {
       if (stage === 'awaiting_setup') return Infinity;
-      return stage === 'installing_deps' ? 20 * 60 * 1000 : 120 * 1000;
+      if (stage === 'installing_deps') return 20 * 60 * 1000;
+      // Rust owns the backend launch and waits up to five minutes so slow
+      // torch/CUDA imports can finish. Keep the splash alive beyond that
+      // window; otherwise it reports a false failure at two minutes while
+      // the supervised backend is still healthy and making progress (#1749).
+      return stage === 'starting_backend' ? 6 * 60 * 1000 : 120 * 1000;
     };
     const invoke = async () => {
       try {
diff --git a/frontend/src/test/BootstrapSplashAwaitingSetupStall.test.jsx b/frontend/src/test/BootstrapSplashAwaitingSetupStall.test.jsx
index 12912985..3a32e4c6 100644
--- a/frontend/src/test/BootstrapSplashAwaitingSetupStall.test.jsx
+++ b/frontend/src/test/BootstrapSplashAwaitingSetupStall.test.jsx
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ describe('useBootstrapStage — awaiting_setup is human-gated (#1376)', () => {
     expect(result.current.stage).toBe('installing_deps');
   });
 
-  it('a machine-owned stage that genuinely wedges still fails', async () => {
+  it('lets Rust finish its backend startup budget before declaring a wedge', async () => {
     // The other half of the contract. Exempting awaiting_setup must not
     // disarm the stall detector for stages nothing but the app can advance —
     // that would trade this bug for the info-less infinite spinner (#879).
@@ -114,10 +114,28 @@ describe('useBootstrapStage — awaiting_setup is human-gated (#1376)', () => {
     await act(async () => {});
     expect(result.current.stage).toBe('starting_backend');
 
+    // The shell waits five minutes for slow torch/CUDA imports. The splash
+    // must not replace that live launch with its old two-minute false failure.
     await act(async () => {
       await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(3 * 60 * 1000);
     });
 
+    expect(result.current.stage).toBe('starting_backend');
+    expect(result.current.message ?? '').not.toMatch(/stuck/i);
+
+    // Pin both sides of the six-minute fallback boundary.
+    await act(async () => {
+      await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(3 * 60 * 1000 - 1_000);
+    });
+
+    expect(result.current.stage).toBe('starting_backend');
+    expect(result.current.message ?? '').not.toMatch(/stuck/i);
+
+    // A frontend-only deadlock remains bounded if the shell never advances.
+    await act(async () => {
+      await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(2_000);
+    });
+
     expect(result.current.stage).toBe('failed');
     expect(result.current.message).toMatch(/stuck/i);
   });