Yes I am using the same version of Limewire @ work/my friends house as I use at my home.
I will try all your recommendations if the problem persists, but so far since i took LOTR's advice of "leaving LW open longer...the better it behaves," seems to have worked for me. As long as I keep LW running in the background, even if i'm not actively downloading, it seems to work much better now when i go to search and download audio files.
Thanks so much to both of you for your help, its greatly appreciated