So it looks like the removal of the .plist file didn't fix the problem. I am starting to notice a potential correlation though. I've been keeping Activity Monitor open to check the status of Dashboard to try and catch it before it overloads the memory. It seems that the issue arises generally when the CPU is undertaking an intensive task. Recently I caught Dashboard overloading the memory while I was doing some intensive video compression. The iMac's internal fans started whirring so I went into Activity Monitor initially to see how much memory the compression software was using up. That's when I saw Dashboard starting to eat away memory, and it kept increasing more and more. The compression software was only using about a gig of memory (though a fairly high % of the CPU) while Dashboard steadily increased to 4, 5, 6 gigs and so on. Even after the compression software was done and the CPU started to cool down, Dashboard continued to eat memory. I've attached two screenshots (before compression was done and after) and you'll notice the memory usage of Dashboard (the video compressor was using the ffmpeg process listed)
Here are some system notes I grabbed from Dashboard in one of the tabs from Activity Monitor by double clicking on the process. Maybe these will help solve the problem?
/
/System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/DashboardClient.app/Con tents/MacOS/DashboardClient
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DashboardClient.framework/Versions/A/Dashboard Client
/usr/share/icu/icudt51l.dat
/System/Library/Keyboard Layouts/AppleKeyboardLayouts.bundle/Contents/Resources/AppleKeyboardLayouts-L.d at
/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.IntlDataCache.le.kbdx
/private/var/db/mds/messages/se_SecurityMessages
/System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Generic Gray Gamma 2.2 Profile.icc
/System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/sRGB Profile.icc
/System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Generic Gray Profile.icc
/Library/Widgets/Unit Converter.wdgt/DB LCD Temp-Black.ttf
/Users/Philip/Library/Caches/com.apple.dashboard.client/Cache.db-shm
/Library/Widgets/Calendar.wdgt/Calendar.widgetplugin/Contents/MacOS/Calendar
/Library/Widgets/Unit Converter.wdgt/UC-LCD.ttf
/Library/Widgets/Unit Converter.wdgt/ConverterPlugin.widgetplugin/Contents/MacOS/ConverterPlugin
/Library/Widgets/Dictionary.wdgt/Dictionary.widgetplugin/Contents/MacOS/Dictiona ry
/System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Generic RGB Profile.icc
/System/Library/Fonts/HelveticaNeue.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/Times.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/LucidaGrande.ttc
/Library/Fonts/Baskerville.ttc
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreUI.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ArtFile. bin
/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.fram ework/Versions/A/Resources/Extras2.rsrc
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreUI.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SArtFile .bin
/Library/Fonts/Futura.ttc
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Calculate.framework/Versions/A/Calculate
/System/Library/Fonts/Helvetica.dfont
/private/var/folders/lz/xymjhj3955l_05603k8kp14m0000gp/C/com.apple.LaunchService s-044502.csstore
/dev/null
/dev/null
/dev/null
count=2, state=0x2
/Users/Philip/Library/Caches/com.apple.dashboard.client/Cache.db
/Users/Philip/Library/Caches/com.apple.dashboard.client/Cache.db
/Users/Philip/Library/Caches/com.apple.dashboard.client/Cache.db-wal
/Users/Philip/Library/Caches/com.apple.dashboard.client/Cache.db-shm
/Users/Philip/Library/Widgets
/Applications
FNetwork.defaultStorageSession
/Users/Philip/Library/Caches/com.apple.dashboard.client/Cache.db-wal
/Users/Philip/Applications
->0x4a5646e02860346f
->0x4a5646e02860427f
/Library/Widgets
/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.fram ework/Versions/A/Resources/Extras2.rsrc
