Hi Karen,
We are both set up about the same on our Macs so maybe this will help you.
I also had problems with 2.8.x releases. I had to back up with earlier release that worked for me. Try 2.7.13. I seems to work ok for me. I always do a search and get rid of all the old stuff with LimeWire before I install a new one.
http://www9.limewire.com:82/download/