Selection from drop-down lists

I have a drop-down list which references nearly 20,000 records in a related table. When clicking on the drop-down for the first time in a session it takes about 30 seconds to load the information. Then when I want to select, say, "harry ..." and enter the letters "har", I am taken to the first record beginning with the letters "ar", and only when I then enter "har" am I taken to the first record beginning with the letters "har". This happens every time I click on the drop-down - the first letter in my search string is always ignored. The only way round this is to enter the first letter twice, eg. "hhar". It is an annoying glitch and I wondered if anyone else has experienced this problem - and is there a handy fix? Or is it simply an unavoidable side-effect of the drop-down list containing so many records?

Edited April 12, 200718 yr by Guest