[dmm]

Don't know if this will help, but it might.

I have several 4-processor Dell workstations running NT that I use for number-crunching. If I boot them up and right away run a program called Matlab (a well-known sci/eng program), it runs loops very slowly. But, as I open and close windows, Matlab gradually speeds up. After doing this a lot (like, a hundred times or so), I eventually get a 10x speedup. So the workaround was to write a program that does nothing but open and close DOS windows. It takes a minute to run, and then Matlab works great. This problem is specific to those Dell machines and to loops in Matlab. Wierd but true.