Hi,

You said, "The dimms I upgraded to are dell certified, could this be a BIOS issue? or a conflict somewhere else?"

Dell certified? By who, where did you get the memory?
You can run a full diagnostics scan using the Dell diagnostics disk. This will show you where your problems are in your hardware if you have any.
And, I agree that you may have too many things starting with Windows. Look here -
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm

Mis Dos Centavos,
Darrell

Find the 'EXACT' memory for your Dell here.

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John, Perhaps you have too many background programs running. These use up resources and slow you down. Also, you may not have seated your new memory properly. Reseat everything.