Ive been haing that problem, and i've sen a couple other cases of it on these forums. I've read that you shouldn't use cinepak or rle compression and that you shouldnt playblast more than 100 frames. i havent had the chance to try this yet.
Also, i dont think its about memory. I tried importing a very small 8-bit mono sound file into a new scene w/ no geometry or animation. And playing the sound in maya will crash it anyways at the end of the time or if i playblast.
This also used to happen in maya2.0 as well as 2.5
I havent been able to find a sutible work around.
((( DePingus )))