with the .HEX you sent me, it's around 10 seconds with the verify option checked. so close to be 3 time faster than PICSTART.

if i remove the verify option... around 5 seconds.

To me the BOOTLOADER option is always handy even using this board. Using the mod i suggested.. it's pretty slick

As i previously said, on some device, the on-board programmer fail for some odd reason, you just need to reprogram the device once again.... this NEVER happen with the bootloader.