[squid-users] Busy Transparent Cache Causing Problems

I've got an OpenBSD box running Squid 2.5 Stable 5 that's pretty busy.
When it gets to around 30% squid process usage, my Layer 4 transparent
switch thinks that squid's down and kills my L4 redirection even though
it's not really. So what happens is when my L4 switch backs off and
stops forwarding HTTP requests to my squid box, it relieves the load
enough to the point where the L4 switch then thinks it's back up and
starts forwarding HTTP requests again.

My question is, is there something I can do (short of buying a new box)
to help this, like tune the kernel for better performance or something
to keep my L4 switch from giving a false outage of squid? FYI, my L4
switch is a Nortel Alteon 184.

TIA,
Jay