Screen Refresh Errors

Hi - I have a new high-spec notebook and am noticing a problem with Vista

Ultimate related to screen refreshing. Whenever I modify characteristics of

folders (eg. increase/decrease size), I have to right click > Refresh for

changes to take place. This has recently started to happen on the desktop,

where often after emptying the recycle bin it disappears. In this case I

have to refresh the desktop for it to return. Shouldn't the refresh occur

naturally at the programming level and is there something I can do about

this?

System Specs: Core 2 Duo T9500 2.6GHz // Vista Ultimate // 4GB 667MHz DDR2

SDRAM // 256MB GeForce 8600M GT