I know this topic has come up before, and I've tried to research anything helpful in other threads, but the closest I came was a posting by Laserwolf in the bug-reporting thread for 18, so at Jim H's suggestion, I'm starting a new thread..
In previous builds, I've noticed some drain on resources, but nothing that disrupted my use of MC. I installed 18.0.78 about a week ago, and immediately began experiencing a major drain on the memory every time MCwas open. It began immediately, decreased somewhat when I initially minimized it, but then began ramping up again, to the point where both the computer and MC became unusable.That required either that I terminate the program, or in several cases, the program froze and I had to reboot.
My primary computer has 6 gigs of memory, and taskmaster would routinely showing 1 g or more of usage by MC. There was no corresponding spike in processor utilization. The problem was particularly acute when I was working in Chrome with MC in the background, but it wasn't limited to that. I haven't experienced a similar problem on the two clients that connect to the MC server; quite often, the server remains open for lengthy periods of time, when I'm traveling or working, but the problem occurs even before I open the server..
I've tried running MC headless, but nothing changes. I took note of the suggestions about antivirus conflicts, and ultimately removed Avast, or as much of it as I could (with Revo Uninstaller). Without Avast, MC's memory usage remained between 250-325 gs, but I couldn't leave the computer naked (obviously), so tried installing MSE and began experiencing the same issues.
My system info follows. As you can see, there are lots of external drives, although I'm not sure that's relevant. Also, I have a very large library scattered amongst the drives, something on the order of 500 K files totaling 10 TB - lots of duplicates. I've excluded information on the external drives - too lengthy - but can provide that if relevant:
Media Center
Install Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\J River\Media Center 18\
Interface Plugins: TiVo Server (running)
JRMark: never run
Library: 1386929 files, 180 MB in library, 6.2 GB in thumbnails
Resources: 198 MB memory, 320 handles
Version: 18.0.78.0 Registered
Bluetooth Radios
Broadcom Bluetooth USB with AMP (driver 6.3.0.2500)
Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator (driver 6.1.6002.18457)
Bluetooth Virtual Devices
Bluetooth AV (driver 6.3.0.2400)
Bluetooth Hands-free (driver 6.3.0.2400)
Bluetooth Headset (driver 6.3.0.2400)
Bluetooth L2CAP Interface (driver 6.3.0.2200)
Computer
ACPI x64-based PC (driver 6.0.6002.18005)...
Display adapters
NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GS (driver 7.15.11.7556)
DVD/CD-ROM drives
TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-H653Q (driver 6.0.6002.18005)...
Human Interface Devices
Bluetooth Remote Control (driver 6.3.0.2400)...
Logitech USB Wheel Mouse (driver 6.1.6002.18005)
Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver (driver 6.1.6002.18005)...
IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers
AGERE OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller (driver 6.0.6002.18005)
Imaging devices
EPSON Perfection V33/V330 (driver 3.9.1.3)
Keyboards
HID Keyboard Device (driver 6.0.6002.18005)
HID Keyboard Device (driver 6.0.6002.18005)
Microsoft eHome MCIR 109 Keyboard (driver 6.0.6002.18005)
Microsoft eHome MCIR Keyboard (driver 6.0.6002.18005)
Microsoft eHome Remote Control Keyboard keys (driver 6.0.6002.18005)
Memory
Free Physical Memory: 3.5 GB
Total Memory: 6.0 GB
Mice and other pointing devices
HID-compliant mouse (driver 6.0.6001.18000)
HID-compliant mouse (driver 6.0.6001.18000)
Logitech USB Wheel Mouse (driver 6.0.6001.18000)
Modems
PCI Soft Data Fax Modem with SmartCP (driver 7.74.0.0)
Monitors
Generic Non-PnP Monitor (driver 6.0.6001.18000)
Network adapters
802.11n Wireless PCI Express Card LAN Adapter (driver 2.0.4.0)
Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network) (driver 6.0.6001.18000)
Realtek RTL8168C(P)/8111C(P) Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.0) (driver 6.203.214.2008)
Network Infrastructure Devices
Microsoft Wireless Router Module (driver 1.0.0.3)
Operating System
Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit
Portable Devices
USB CF Reader (driver 6.0.6002.18112)
USB MS Reader (driver 6.0.6002.18112)
USB SD Reader (driver 6.0.6002.18112)
USB xD/SM Reader (driver 6.0.6002.18112)
Printers
Canon Inkjet PIXMA iP4000 (driver 6.0.6000.16386)
Processors
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6700 @ 2.66GHz (driver 6.0.6001.18000)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6700 @ 2.66GHz (driver 6.0.6001.18000)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6700 @ 2.66GHz (driver 6.0.6001.18000)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6700 @ 2.66GHz (driver 6.0.6001.18000)
Sound, video and game controllers
Bluetooth Hands-free Audio (driver 6.3.0.2400)
Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1800 (Model 78xxx, Combo ATSC/QAM) (driver 1.27.26077.0)
Realtek High Definition Audio (driver 6.0.1.5591)
Storage controllers
Intel(R) ICH8R/ICH9R SATA RAID Controller (driver 7.6.0.1011)
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator (driver 6.0.6002.18005)