If you can provide us with some details about your set up such as OS version, how much ram you have, how much spare hard disk space you have, this would help.

LW & OSX's Java are not ram efficient. And they both use Virtual Memory (VM). The later versions of LW have helped to limit this issue but it still exists & particularly for those with limited ram & HDD space.

Techniques for reducing ram are: Close any LW windows you're not using at that time (eg: connections window, Library window, etc.) Close off any very old searches (many hrs old) by clicking the red cross at the top of them. Go to LW's Preferences>Downloads & tick the Auto-clear completed dwnlds option box & press the Apply button.

Running as a UP can slow things down a little as well. Also make sure you have sufficient upld bandwidth left over for browsing.

Don't use the Find sources/Resume function of too many files b/c this will make LW use many moe system resources & will also cause the files to queue for much, much longer & may affect LW's connection quality AND slow LW down.

A 4 minute mp3 should take up between 4 MB to 6 MB space depending on its bitrate quality.