audiodg.exe high CPU load

There's a Hotfix from Microsoft which hits this nail exactly on the head:

A memory leak issue occurs in the Audiodg.exe process when you play audio on a computer that is running Windows 7 (and Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008)

From that link you can ask Microsoft to send you the Hotfix, and when you've applied it you won't then need to stop your audiodg.exe Service or throttle back any other audio features.

My system is Windows 7 x64 + 8GB RAM on an ASUS P7P55D EVO Motherboard with an i7 CPU and on-board VIA "High Definition" Audio + ATI Radeon HD 4350 Graphics Card.

While I was developing a C++ program I was sometimes generating dozens of successive short audio beeps which caused the audiodg process to 'hog' as much as 500MB of RAM! Plus, there was a lingering hike in CPU cycles for many minutes afterwards ... even though I'd stopped generating the beeps.

As expected; this Hotfix cured that audiodg bad behaviour.