Tried all of these, even though regarding 2.), I couldn't find any option like that in my BIOS. Either way, the problem still persists. My motherboard is the ASRock Z97 Fatal1ty Killer. I felt like the latest BIOS update from Dec 31 helped a little bit, though, and I'm seeing the delays less often at the moment. Still, they're not gone, so please fix this asap.
Edit: Okay, I'm not seeing the delays less often, just was lucky for a few days apparently, since it's happening all the time again now. Hoping the new FW update is ready soon :sigh!: