xp sp3 sony vaio boots very slow until xp logo

sony vaio, during boot up the computer is very slow. screen remains black for a while, then the screen with white blocks at the bottom apears. it takes a while for the block to turn into a line. next is the xp screen with the scrolling green status bar. this takes no time. next is the log on portion, once logged in, no problmes at all

any idea what would cause the machine to take a long time to boot at the begining?

 

updated bios, no change. new ram, no change. takes about 3-5 minutes to get throught the bios boot up portion

 

How about booting in safe mode? Any quicker?