Red Alert 3: Uprising very long loading screen

Hi,

I have C&C Red Alert 3: Uprising through Origin, and although the game plays correctly the loading screen (establishing battlefield control) when starting a level or restoring a saved game always takes at least 1, and sometimes 3 or 4 minutes to complete. It seems to stick at about 30%, and then unsticks and completes the rest within a few seconds.

This is in contrast to Red Alert 3, which always completed the entire sequence in a few seconds.

My configuration is Windows 7, i7-2700, 8GB RAM, Nvidia 570GTX. This game is digital distribution so no DVD involved. I've checked to make sure I have plenty of free space both on the disk the game is installed on and my system disk.

I have many other recent games and all show very snappy disk performance.

Indeed, when the game hangs at loading, a look at the performance monitor shows negligible CPU and disk activity. It appears to just be waiting for... I don't know what. Eventually it unsticks, completes the loading in a rush, and the gameplay begins.

Any ideas?

Thank you,

Rob Miles