When it's working OK, Limewire is the best.

Shareaza, Bearshare, Soulseek and Kazaa deliver poor search and download results in comparison. But at least they don't operate problematically.

I still get a computer-freezing 100% cpu usage with Limewre, despite trying various combinations of older and newer versions of Limewire and Java, as suggested here.

I have no viruses, adware etc.

On my other computer, the latest Limewire and Java work together OK.

Exactly why is Limewire so problematic for so many, and not for others?

Short of reinstalling Windows XP, any suggestions?

One thing comes to my mind,.....changing the compatibility mode.
Go to the LW icon on your desktop, right click on it and choose Properties. Click on the Compatibility tab and change the Compatibility mode to either Windows NT or Windows 2000.
Besides, there is a thread talking about this issue, you might wanna read this as well:
http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showth...hlight=freezes

__________________

"Never Argue With An Idiot. They Will Drag You Down To Their Level, Then Beat You With Experience"

I was just recommended the Ares P2P program.

IMO it is better that Shareaza and Bearshare, seems devoid of ads and spyware, and it seems to deliver, download and work almost as well as Limewire. And my cpu stays below 20%!

I tried without success everyone of the suggestions recommended on the forum for curing the common 100% Limewire cpu problem.

I believe it is some subtle "continuous repeat feedback loop", as some have suggested.

Is there any word from the designers and programmers at Limewire themselves as to what they believe it is?

For windows users, there's always the odd version that doesn't work properly. This has "always" been the case. So don't close the door completely on LW. Keep a look out for new versions that will potentially behave better on your system.