title: Unbearably slow android emulator -- is there a fix?
body: <p>I know that the topic was discussed <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1554099/slow-android-emulator">here</a> last year, but I am hoping that someone has since found a fix.  The emulator is simply not working for me anymore.  It took 15 minutes or so to load hello world a few days ago, and now I can't get it to load a simple MapsDemo from the api samples no matter how long I wait.  </p>
  
  <p>I'm using eclipse with the android plugin (sdk and avd manager). My pc is 2.31 GHz quadcore with 8GB ram and windows 7 x64.  Nothing is being logged in LogCat apparently.  </p>
  
  <p>Are there any alternatives or certain fixes I can try before buying a phone?  I'd just upgrade my phone to an HTC Incredible and debug from the phone, but Verizon won't have any for at least a month and I'd really like to have my app out by then.</p>