[X4U] Trouble with Stuffit Expander 9.01

[B.ru c-e € K1u-tch-k0]

I have the strangest problem with Stuffit Expander 9.01 on my iMac with OS X
10.3.7. 

Stuffit expander takes about two minutes to start up; it expands files
quickly once it is running.

So far I¹ve tried:
1. repairing permissions (no help)
2. Downloading Stuffit once again and using the installer to remove Stuffit.
Then I've deleted the plist files in my ~/Library/Preferences folder. Then
reinstalled Stuffit Expander. (no help)
3. Tried running Stuffit Expander from a brand new user set up just to test
this; new user had identical problem -- so it is not related to anything
installed in my user directory.

I have NOT had any other problems with other programs - does anybody have
any suggestions?
-- 
B-r-u -c-e