Acer Aspire ES1-512 backgroundagent.exe handle count grows forever and crashes the system

Acer Aspire ES1-512 backgroundagent.exe handle count grows forever and crashes the system

backgroundagent.exe version is 1.0.1.7 (is that the latest?)

System has been up 2 hours and handle count is over 20,000 for the process, and it keeps growing.

Running BitDefender 2017 AV - thought it might be a possible cause - disabled it and the handle count kept growing.

Thanks for any suggestions/ideas.

David