Hi jgv
Thanks for the screenie, though I'm still not clear on the problem. The lack of new results and that the search bar isn't updating might be that connections have been "frozen." There is a bug that should be fixed in the next version that *may* fix the problem.
https://www.limewire.org/jira/browse/LWC-831
You can/should delete the screenie now, or could ask a mod to do that for you.
If, the next time you see this, try switching to the view->connections, and seeing if they update. If they are 'frozen' then the bug fix will probably apply to you too.