Loginwindow takes forever (3min+) to start

[virtual.rx]

This G4 used to boot up very fast but suddenly (can't remember if I installed anything before this annoyance appeared), but now the 'loginwindow' takes about 3 minutes to finish.
It stays at the very end (the progress bar) for 99% of the 3 minutes.

I have tried trashing the prefs, and ofcourse emptied the trash.
I have tried fsck -yf in single mode.
I have tried zapping the PRAM.
I have tried OnyX and Cocktail.

I am running out of ideas...

 

[mad jew]

Which preference files did you remove, and from which folder? Is the correct partition/drive selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences?

 

[virtual.rx]

Which preference files did you remove, and from which folder? Is the correct partition/drive selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences?

loginwindow.plist from user library
com.apple.loginwindow.plist from both libraries

Startup disk is correct.

 

[mad jew]

Do you have any peripherals plugged in? Are there any item within a folder named StartupItems on the root drive's library? Have you recently installed a new printer or other such peripheral?

 

[virtual.rx]

Do you have any peripherals plugged in? Are there any item within a folder named StartupItems on the root drive's library? Have you recently installed a new printer or other such peripheral?

Just a mouse and keyboard, no hardware changes.
No items in the StartUpItems folder. (except invisible DS_Store)

Thanks Mad Jew, I really appreciate your effort.

 

[mad jew]

Woah, I'm running pretty low on ideas. What brand of mouse and keyboard do you have? Did the slowness correspond with a system update or have you installed any peripheral drivers that might have slowed this down. Something like a dodgy printer driver could potentially slow the machine down at start up, even if it's not plugged in. A good way to check if this is the problem is to start in Safe Mode by holding SHIFT at startup. Is it quicker getting into Safe Mode? Take into account that Safe Mode involves a disk check at some stage though.