system: dimension 4700 mce

windoze xp sp 3

added 2 gb of official dell RAM to the initial 512mb, filling all 4 slots

at inital startup said it recognized the new memory and things seemed grand and the computer was moving much faster.

now, 3 issues have cropped up:

1. reboots are much slower now taking a 1-2 minutes versus the 30 seconds before adding the new RAM

2. system now will not recognize my external USB connected hardrive

3. the system seems to have slowed down to pre RAM upgrade speeds

 

any tips, tricks, advice? be nice to the noob please.