Determing Gapless Playback Crash

Question

I recently reformatted my hard drive, reinstalled iTunes and loaded all my music from my external HD. iTunes added all the music but freezes when it gets to certain songs while "determing gapless playback." I tried deleting the song that was causing it to freeze but that only helped until it got through about 10 songs and then got stuck again. When it freezes, I can't do anything with iTunes and have to shut it down in the task manager. I tried letting it run it's course but nothing changed after a couple hours. I can use iTunes if I get to the little "x" at the top quick enough, but that's a pain. What do I do?

Answer 1

I'm going to echo the complaint and add the gory details of my efforts to this thread. Then I'm going to post feedback to Apple -- iTunes(7.6.0.29) + Vista renders both software and hardware UNUSABLE.
Objective: transfer library from old machine (SRC) to new laptop (TGT) with music folder on USB hard drive
SRC: 1.8GHz P3 desktop, Windows 2000 Pro SP4, 384MB memory, 40GB disk, iTunes 7.3.2.6
TGT: 2.0Ghz P4 laptop, Vista Ultimate, 4GB memory, 100GB SATA 7,200rpm disk, 100GB 2.5" IDE 5,400rpm USB disk, iTunes 7.6.0.29
iTunes 2771 song library -- 12 purchased from Apple (under 2 different accounts), remainder ALL created as LAME 3.96 VBR -V2 (approx 192 kbps) using dBpoweramp Music Converter and manually added to iTunes music folder on SRC (before transfer)
Conversion Process
-- Export library on SRC
-- Modify Library.xml, change all "\C:\Tunes" to "\F:\Tunes" (letter assigned to USB drive determined in advance)
-- Copy music folder from SRC (C:\Tunes\.) to USB drive (\Tunes)
-- Install iTunes on TGT
-- Set iTunes options: Music Folder = F:\Tunes; NO keep folders organized; NO copy to folder when adding; NO auto-sync when iPod connected
-- Authorize TGT computer (2 accounts) on Apple Store
-- Connect iPod to TGT and "Transfer Purchases"
-- Connect USB drive to TGT
-- Import Library.xml file
-- "Determine Gapless Playback Information" (DGPI) begins after import completes, process FAILS and LOCKS iTunes
-- USB drive shows 2 seconds of activity every 60 seconds, indefinitely, but iTunes shows no sign of progress or activity
-- iTunes must be terminated via task manager
-- DGPI repeatedly failed on song from Aerosmith's Greatest album (418 of 2581)
-- Terminate iTunes, disconnect USB drive, restart iTunes
-- Deleted problematic song, reconnect USB drive
-- DGPI fails on another song from same Aerosmith album (385 of 2549)
-- Terminate iTunes, disconnect USB drive, restart iTunes, delete second problematic song, reconnect USB drive
-- DGPI fails on THIRD song from SAME Aerosmith album
-- Terminate iTunes, restart and delete all remaining songs from Aerosmith album
-- Reconnect USB drive, DGPI fails on song from Beatles Abbey Road (673 of 2531)
-- ** all songs which caused DGPI to fail are LAME 3.96 -V2 VBR (44.1 KHz, 16 bit, 2 channel) created by dBpoweramp