I am having problems with doing seaches on the forums, Am I missing a step?

 

Always choose 'advanced search'

fill out as many fields as appropiate on the left and right side of the screen.

If you get 500 returns (20 pages at 25 per) then you need to refine more.

I don't think you can search a word less than 4 character.

It's better to search a single or few forums at a time than to be overwhelmed by all of them.

 

I've never had a successful search searching all open forums. Pick the forum where you think what you are looking for will be found.