Outlook 2003 Attaching a file

I have been using Outlook 2003 for many years as part of Office 2003 Professional. Lately when I try to attach a file to a new email using the insert file option from the tool bar, it has been taking from 30 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes for the file to be inserted as an attachment. However when I open my documents, find the file, copy it and then go to the email and paste it, it then attaches it very quickly, usually less than 3 to four seconds. The file I am attemting to attach is not large, usually less than 500 KB. Does anyone know what the problem might be?

 

I found out that one of my RAM modules had failed and I only had 512 meg of RAM instead of the 1 gig I had installed.