Slow response with SQL table in vb.net app

When the user opens one of the forms there is a long delay.  I have found that one of the SQL tables is much larger than most users ever encounter.  It is a table that is only opened in some cases in the code for this form, but when this slowdown happened, it made me wonder if 'something' is happening with that table as we start the form...like maybe vb.net does some type of "pre-fetch" or "pre-something" just in case that table DOES get opened.  Note that this is in the compact framework environment.

So is anyone familiar with the "inner workings" of a vb.net app at runtime, which would explain the delay?  TIA