POL is checking files VERY slowly

Greetings all. I've come to restart on FFXI after a 3 year leave (yay!). But one thing is stopping me from returning. POL is taking nigh on 5 hours just to CHECK files (note CHECK, not downloading). At this 5 hour mark, it had only checked 28% of the files.

Managed to get on via the Xbox 360 version (blitzed the check/update/download part). No matter where or how I install POL, the same thing happens. Either in Full Screen or Windowed mode. Also, the Chocobo mouse cursor vanishes even though I'm moving the mouse around. Can also take like 15 - 20 seconds for POL to register that I'm over a button. Note this ONLY occures during updating. Browsing the rest of POL (network/proxy, disclamer etc) works fine.

Please can someone help me! Yeah I've got the Xbox 360 version but:
1. I don't want to pay for the Wings of the Goddess expansion, AGAIN!
2. PC is way better to control

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (Service Pack 1)
CPU: AMD Phenom 9650 Quad-core 2.30GHz
GPU: nVidia Ge-Force 8800 Ultra 1GB VRAM
RAM: 4GB
HDD: C: 120GB, D: 1TB
DirectX: 11

Thanks in advance. :)

um you dont have to pay for the expansion again :o

If you just reinstalled, the filecheck is supposed to take a long time. That's nothing out of the ordinary. However, I've personally found that on the PC, the check/install steps goes a little faster if POL is minimized.