I have read this whole thread on system slowdown. I have a similiar problem but do not have high CPU utilization.
I have a 1.8 ghz p4 500 ram running xp pro and LW 4.8.1 pro, java 1.5.4 and cable connection.

I have have max uploads and downloads set to 4 and have followed the previous suggestions for LW setup.

LW runs about 4 to 15% cpu and 40,000 - 60,000 memory.

It seems to run fine when first started and then as the day goes on it progressively slows my machine down. Switching between active windows takes forever as the graphics slowly are displayed. The disk drive goes crazy like a lot a swapping is going on. Stuff is downloading great, but I sacriface using my machine for anything else because of the horrible performance.

It seems that one I switch to and active appplication, say Lotus notes, and it gets caught up, that app is runs better until you switch to another app.

It is really bad if you let it lock out from inactivity. It takes for ever for it to wake up and log back in.

The machine runs fine once I shut LW down. Azureus had the same problem but worse, that is why I tried LW.

There must be something we are missing here. Any suggestions?