iTunes using 1.6 GB of memory!

When iTunes starts to use around 1.3 GB of memory it generates either a "Cant write libray" or a "library file cannot be saved (-50)" error msg and then it locks up (Not responding in task mgr). I use task mgr to kill it and when it restarts it takes 20 min to check the libary. I researched those errors but all I could find was to do a reinstall, which I did, but with no improvement.

When I start iTunes it uses about 150MB and grows over time. For example, in one day the memory usage grows to 850 MB. If I start and stop iTunes it drops back to 150 MB but then starts growing again.

I think I've narrowed this memory leak down to the use of cover flow. When I skip to the next song the memory usage increases but not all the time and then the memory usage also just increases/decreases at other times so my observation is not conclusive. It seems like this was a problem back with iTunes 7 and then it was fixed and or disappeared.

I've been running iTunes w cover flow 24/7 for a whole house stereo for years and this problem just started for me with an August update. In otherwords I could run the system for weeks without problems or a reboot. Now I need to restart iTunes everyday! I know life is rough 😉

Has anyone else seen this problem or have other ideas besides not using cover flow?

I run Win 7 Pro with iCore 5/4GB of memory and a mirrored 1 TB drive. The library is about 35k songs or 160 GB.