Jim, there is a big difference in 32 and 64 bit. I remember that a few years ago the 32 bit version did not recognize AK players and a few more issues. The 64 bit version did not have some of those problems.
Now with the 32 bit version it is the first time I have been able to copy more then 5000 songs to the player without a crash. The 64 bit version crashes before it reaches 500 songs.
A few years ago I deinstalled Bitdefender and followed the instructions for Taming Windows Defender. In my case MC still crashes but less frequently when I use Windows Defender.
I will try to run my PC off the web for a day with Windows Defender deinstalled and see if that makes a difference. But the problem with syncing music to my AK's remains in both versions, but very different.
With the old versions of MC with the iPod classic I almost never had MC crashes or sync problems when using Bitdefender.