Document Server chaos -- not talking properly, intermittently

  (I previously posted something about Document Loader - that is now 
revised and different, hence this post ~~ You'll find this post much 
more informative, I hope!)

Please forgive me for causing any confusion... I was put on this project 
after another engineer here took another position, so I've been playing 
catch-up on understanding it fully enough to at least put out a lucid 
question to this community. Your patience and time is very much 
appreciated!!!

The previous developer wrote a C++ program that we call DocumentLoader, 
that talks to the Document Server, and loads a PPT file. The Loader file 
has been through extensive testing and debugging, so I/we HIGHLY doubt 
the problem lies within it (been wrong before though!).

Typically, these PPT files are setup as "slideshows" that auto-advance 
their slides and usually repeat/rotate, as managed by our own product (a 
type of multimedia messaging solution). Just for the sake of example, 
this might be a "daily announcements" slide-show set to display (amongst 
other types of messages) every 5 minutes (the other types of messages 
would show the remainder of the time, rinse, repeat, etc.)

So here's the problem......
Whenever DocumentLoader tells the Document Server to take down the PPT 
file, it appears to; but when it comes time to load it to display it 
again, it will - seemingly without problem... except that the machine's 
memory keeps getting sucked down (the machine that's running the server 
program). And, each time it cycles through (loads), there is about 
one-second added to the load time. So a PPT that normally takes about 2 
seconds to load, by the 6th time, takes like 8 seconds. And to make 
matters worse, once we hit about a dozen or so loads, the machine 
practically becomes non-responsive until we restart it.

Also, (more just to see my debugging logic) we occassionally see 
multiple instances of the DocumentLoader program (like 20 or more) 
trying to load the same PPT file. I figure this is "normal" 
in-so-much-as the loader is trying to talk the server into loading that 
PPT (in the timed loop I described above), and the server is failing for 
whatever reason to either respond to the loader and/or actually load the 
file.

I've been consulting with the previous engineer, as well as another 
programmer here, and there is some agreement that there could be a 
memory leak in the server program. It is very hard to debug, because we 
have this deployed on hundreds of machines, and only a handful or so 
behave this way ~ seemingly randomly, at that.

I've not been able to find much info about this "server" ~~ can anyone 
enlighten me?
Furthermore, is this a known issue of any kind?

Even if just to say "welcome" (I'm new to the list), I'd appreciate any 
ideas!!!  :)

Humbly,
Chris