Strange start-up delay

[Jorg]

Start-up delay

Ever since I hooked-up my system to DSL, I have a funny
thing happening at start-up.

Initially, the system starts normally all the way to the
desktop. Everything looks as if the system is ready to be
used - no more hard drive activity.

However, the system is not ready until another minute has
passed. About one minute after the desktop is displayed
and there is no more hard drive activity, the hard drive
starts again for a few seconds (but there is nothing
happening on the screen). Only now is the system ready to
be used. From then on, there is nothing more unusual.

If I try to open an application before the minute is
over, the application starts to launch but then appears
to freeze before it is fully open. As soon as the minute,
the application continues to launch and then works
perfectly.

Anyone got any idea what is happening here? As I said,
the problem started when I connected an external DSL
modem to my computer's network card (which is on-board).
However, I did not install any software with the modem
because XP can handle DSL (and I do not have any problems
with my DSL connection).

Jorg.