ITunes 8.0 Crashes When Analyzing Gapless Playback

Question

I made a smooth transition to iTunes 8.0 and had no problems loading my library or having Genius search through my library about a month after the transition. The problem began when I attempted to add about 2,000 song to my library. The songs were added fine, but when iTunes began to 'analyze gapless playback', iTunes got stuck on one song. Eventually, iTunes froze, then Vista froze, then Vista restarts automatically. This problem now occurs every single time I open iTunes as it will never be able to analyze every new song without freezing. A couple of times, I have actually received a blue screen error as a result of iTunes freezing. The same freezing also occurs when I tell Genius to collect information about my library.
What I have tried:
1) I have tried removing the file that iTunes becomes stuck on. This did not work, iTunes only got stuck on another seemingly random song when 'analyzing gapless playback'
2) I have tried to click the 'x' option in order to stop the 'analyzing gapless playback', however, iTunes archives the songs that it has already analyzed before it freezes, so once iTunes is restarted, the song that freezes the computer is the first one to be analyzed.
3) I have tried removing every single component of the iTunes program from my computer and reinstalling a fresh copy. This does not work, I still have the same problem.
4) I have tried reverting back to an older version of iTunes (7.6). This did not work, iTunes still could not finish 'analyzing gapless playback' without freezing.
5) I have tried downloading the 32-bit installer for iTunes so I could run it as a 32-bit process, however, when trying to install, an error occurs that says that I should download the 64-bit installer.
6) I have tried deleting my iTunes library file and the entire iTunes file all together. I still have the same problem once I load my music again.
I know other people are having similar problems, but I didn't read about anything that couldn't be fixed by what the steps I tried above. If you have any advice, please email me and let me know. I honestly can't do anything in iTunes and it is the most important program on my computer. Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

It is most likely that there is a track in you library that is causing trouble and the trick is to find it and remove it from your library.
Then iTunes should be able to complete the gapless playback calculations and then it won't happen every time you start iTunes.
A way of doing it is to create an alternative library. Un check "Copy to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" in Preferences during the test.
Then start adding tracks to the test library a folder or a few folders at at time until the problem starts. Then go back and try and isolate which track it was.
Royb from Apple has posted a different way of doing it that might like to look at:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3413761&#3413761