Perhaps try to disconnect all slow disc-similar devices like optical IO or diskette drives
by removing the power chord. very low probability, but as neither network nor AV is in the game
the typical suspects are gone.

BTW: good job of getting more info, even if still no success.
Perhaps start eliminating more services from startup to get an idea where the problems are interconnected.
The other option is to run with coverage enabled, to get a better picture of which exact call/lines takes more time.

regards

thomas

>Thanks for the thought, but as I said, everything else runs fine. Just to be sure I checked it and it is UDMA 5.
>
>>one thing to check up front is the way the disc is read: somtimes [U]DMA access
>>is downgraded to PIO and that could explain it.
>>
>>regards
>>
>>thomas