Cyclone IV - RC on nCONFIG to delay nCONFIG rise

I have a design that I've ran into a config problem on 2 out of about 100 boards so far where the FPGA won't load from a M25P40 after being successfully programed with a USB Blaster. The first board got fixed by changing a pull up resistor to accommodate another IC that had too much leakage current and never set an IO pin to the proper value. That didn't work on this board.

At power up nSTATUS never goes high. I believe this indicates the devices is not properly exiting the POR sequence. So far everything looks good (1.2V, 2.5V, 3.3V up < 20 ms). For reference on a board working properly I see nSTATUS rise about 90 ms after nCONFIG and then the config data starts to toggle.

I can get this device to configure properly if I pulse nCONFIG low after powering up. I can see nCONFIG rise with the 2.5V supply (VCCA) at power up (via the 10K pull up). Can I add a capacitor to ground to delay the nCONFIG rising edge without disturbing the operation of the USB Blaster? I don't see a spec on how much capacitance the Blaster can handle on nCONFIG.

Or is that only a bandage for some other problem? Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks,

John D