70 seconds to load kernel on Thinkpad R50e normal?

[Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org>]

Say, it only takes 5 seconds to load the kernel on my desktop(Duron),
but 70 seconds on my laptop(Celeron). Both have 256Mb memory.

That is at boot I see
Loading 2.6.12-1-686........
And then it takes 70 whole seconds before the dots end and I see:
Bios Data Check OK
or whatever.

Does that sound normal for a IBM Thinkpad R50e?