Zune Very High Memory Usage issue

[Eriq Cook]

A few weesk ago, my Zune desktop software started using extreme amounts of memory within the first 2 minutes of starting, causing my computer to slow down to the point that even my mouse pointer will barely move, and it's incredibly frustrating.

When I start Zune, I open Windows Task Manager and watch the Zune.exe process spike from 20,000k all the way up to 1,500,000k (!) all within the first 2 minutes of starting the Zune software.

I have been using the Zune desktop software for almost a year now, and have never experienced this particular problem before. What's worse, I have the Zune desktop software installed on 3 different computers, and I can duplicate the problem on all 3 of my workstations. 2 computers are running Windows Vista Business, and 1 computer is running Vista Home Premium. All 3 computers have 2-4GB of RAM and recent processors (core 2 duo and duo 2 processors), so it's not a memory or processor issue. The problem just started happening on all 3 computers aproximately 3 weeks ago and I can't even use the Zune desktop software for 2 minutes without it freezing my computers.

Nothing to my knowledge has changed in my local network and media locations. No new software has been installed on either of the 3 computers aside from Adobe Photoshop.

I'm running the latest version of Zune (2.5).

The problem is incredibly frustrating because it just started happening out of the blue a few weeks ago. And I've been using the Zune desktop software for a long time.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? I don't know what to do but eventually throw out my Zune now...

[Eriq Cook]

After a few days of troubleshooting, I narrowed Zune dekstop software memory usage issue down to Power Pack 1 for Windows Home Server. Apparently there is a bug in PP1 that causes all media player software including Zune and iTunes to have all kinds of issues, including memory usage problems.

I forgot I had installed a PRE-RELEASE version of WHS Power Pack 1 prior to the Zune memory issue, and this was when the Zune software started leaking memory really bad. I uninstalled Power Pack 1 PRE-RELEASE, and the Zune software started working properly again on all 3 computers.

After I uninstalled WHS PP1 pre-release from my Windows Home Server (which stores all my media), I downloaded and installed the full OFFICIAL release of WHS PP1, started Zune on a couple of workstations, and the memory problem resurfaced all over again. As soon as I started the Zune desktop software, the zune.exe process memory would quickly use up all available memory within 3 minutes of launching the Zune software.

So it didn't matter if I was using WHS PP1 pre-release, or the commercial release version. Either way, whenever I have PP1 installed on my Windows Home Server computer, the Zune software doesn't work properly. So I've uninstalled it completely and waiting for Microsoft to fix the PP1 issue. Without PP1 on my server, my Zune software works great.

If anyone is experiencing this issue and they are running Windows Home Server with Power Pack 1 installed, uninstall PP1 and I'm sure that'll solve the problem.

Go figure.

[drfinale]

I was having the same issue with Zune using up upwards of 6 GB of memory before bringing my computer to a grinding halt (resulting in the old five-second-power-button-hold maneuver). I noticed that Zune Player only did this when I was logged on, but not while my wife or daughter were logged on.

I navigated to "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft" and deleted the Zune folder.

I restarted the Zune player, and after adding everything back into the library, the program works great. You will need to set-up sync again, and resubscribe to podcasts as well.