Well I don't think the 2nd and 3rd post where necessary. But I think this what your asking

When LimeWire start it is doing several things at once. 1) connecting you to the G network 2) sorting and indexing your shared files, so other users can see them to d/l, 3) trying to connect any d/l you may have had 4) starting to u/l when other users want to d/l from you.

It takes LW time to do this, and the more files you share the longer it will take

Other factors that will affect this are the resources you have available for LW. Like How much RAM you have or your CPU speed.

On this system. It takes appx. 13 - 17 for LW to settle down and stablize. Once it has LW operates very, very well. I'm running LW Pro 4.4.5 and JRE 1.5.0_01

Sometimes you just need a little patience.