I've had this problem before and I fixed it by updating my java but now the problem is back again. If I try to download more than 1 or 2 songs at a time my limewire starts to lock up and my pc slows waaay down. Even while not downloading songs I notice my computer bogs down. I have an athlon 2700+ cpu with a gig of ram, many gigs of HD space available and 5mpbs cable. I have windows XP SP2, limewire version 4.10.9 and java version 1.5.0_10. Can anyone help? I have norton anti virus but it doesn't have an effect on my problem. I used to be able to d/l 10 things at once without any performance problems.

Try these:

1. Tip: Purge the Downloads Queue!
2. Within LW's options, disable ultrapeer capabilities & iTunes sharing.
3. Reduce both your upload & download bandwidth a bit.

You could try the Java 1.6 (have to remove all other Java versions for it to work), that's worked for a few people. Use the JRE offline installer.
http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

Or, you could try updating LW & see if the latest 4.12.6 works any better. There's also a 4.13.0 beta. If you love your 4.10.9 version, just make sure that you've saved the installer...installing a new version will remove the old one
http://www.limewire.com/english/content/download.shtml

Are there any differences in the newer version? I've stuck with this version of limewire because I've never had problems with it and I'm familiar with it. Any advantage to keeping this old version?

You can have a look at the changelog here & see what's different with the newer versions
http://www.limewire.com/english/cont..._history.shtml