System slowdown despite mem upgrade

Hi

My system seems to be much slower after I added another 1GB of memory

System info
Dell Inspiron 6400
Duo Core 166
WInXP
Previously 1GB mem now 2GB after upgrade
Avast and Comodo

Since I jacked up the memory the system seems slower during/after startup. The desktop takes longer to load and windows have a longer delay when attempting to open. The browser/window that would take a second to load now takes longer.
Once everything has started up things are (presumably) ok. It just seems like the startup has gotten much slower.

Could this be due to Avast or Comodo as well? I had them before when my RAM was 1GB but never had this problem

Any advice/observations?
Thanks in advance

 

is the ram upgrade the only thing you've done? have you updated or installed/reinstalled any apps in the process?

 

The only way additional RAM could slow the computer is if you put a slower stick than what was already in there. Then both sticks would slow down to the slower stick's speed.

 

No- haven't installed any new apps.

The only other "upgrade" i did was replacing my old laptop battery with a new one

 

was it this slow before the RAM upgrade?

 

You had 1GB and now you have 2GB... and the system is slower. What configuration do you have? Did you add two identical 1GB modules, did you add two 512MB sticks to what you already had, et cetera? If you have a dual channel computer, you'll want to make sure you have identical pairs in the channels, or it may run slower. Dells especially tend to do that.

Have you seen any other odd things, in addition to the slowness?

 

First of all i would double-check if the startup becomes quick as before when you remove the new RAM module. Play around with plugging the modules in different slots, separately.

Maybe you've got a buggy RAM module...