Thunderbird sluggish

[finbogey]

IS TB sluggish for anyone else? I've compacted the inboxes, but it's
still really sluggish. And by sluggish, I mean a lot of things:

Often when it's screen is behind others on my desktop, when I click on
its tab in the taskbar, it can take a minute to come to the front.

Often when it is at the front, when I click on a different mailbox in
the left pane, it will take a minute to change to that mailbox.

Sometimes when writing an email, the displayed text is waay behind my
typing (and I'm a hunt'n'peck guy).

No other programs exhibit this behavior,though to be careful, I bought
System Mechanic and cleaned my registry, etc. I also use 2
anti-spyware programs, anti-virus, and a firewall, so I don't think I
have an infected system. I have two USB external HDs. I thought maybe
they were part of the problem (two many file-handles, who knows, I'm
grasping at straws at this point). But I disconnected them and no
change.

Am I really the only person with this problem? I love TB, but this is
killing me constantly having to wait for TB to come around.

Earlier version of TB didn't do this. At the moment I'm on TB 1.5
20051025.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I have exhausted my own
ideas.

fin