Audio Dropouts w/ RME Fireface UFX

This is a weird one...
 
For about two years I have had a recurring problem with my RME UFX becoming "disconnected" while using SONAR and sometimes other programs.
 
For background, you have to know that my computer is set up in a large closet near my workstation, and I connect to it through jacks on panels in the wall. One of those connections is the USB cable from my RME. The closet door is usually open unless I am actually tracking. Near the computer is a USB scanner and a couple of USB printers. As you can see from my signature, my hardware should be capable of handling the job.
 
Once in a while I hear a soft "clunk" noise coming from the area of the computer, and a dropout always follows. The "clunk"
 sounds very much like the kind of noise a printer makes when it's getting itself ready to perform. It sounds so much like a printer that one of the first things I did was to replace my USB laser jet (and leave the other printer off except when I'm using it). Following that I have replaced my motherboard (once in an attempt to solve the problem, later to upgrade to my current system). None of that helped. I now leave my printer and scanners disconnected from the computer's USB ports until I want to use them. The noise and the ensuing dropouts still happen.
 
The problem has not been entirely static. Early on, I had to restart my computer every time to get audio back (power cycling the RME doesn't work). These days, it sometimes comes back on its own after a few seconds. When I moved from Win 7 to Win 8.1, I thought the problem was solved, but after a few months it came back.
 
Now, I know of nothing in a computer that will make this kind of noise. (And I'm not exactly clueless about computers; I've put together at least a dozen of them and I've been messing with digital HD recording since the early '90s.) But it appears as if the noise must be coming from the computer somehow. Most of the time, the only other things connected are my mouse/keyboard USB cable, an Ethernet cable, and my three DVI video cables. I recognize that I've got a less than ideal path for my USB connection from the wire to the computer; it goes through a six foot (or so) cable, through a female to female adapter on a plate in the wall, and then through a twelve foot or so cable to the computer. That's longer than the 15 ft. recommended for USB, and I've just ordered a USB to Ethernet adapter so that I can run Ethernet instead of USB for most of the distance. Still, if that's my problem... What the heck is that noise?
 
I'm desperately hoping that someone out there has had a similar experience and solved the problem. I've asked at the RME forum, and the very capable but not very chatty technical guy there said "something's wrong with your computer".
 
Any comments or advice will be much appreciated!

Hi. I do not know about the noise (or too much else).
What is your latency settings? Could it be too low, for the length of the USB connection? (I am just guessing)
Have you tried different cables and adapter? Different USB port? Are you using the Ufx in a USB3 port?
Have you tried DPC latency checker tool? http://www.thesycon.de/eng/free_download.shtml
Best of luck.

If you hear a noise and then a dropout my first guess would not be latency etc. I would look at my power supply or hard drive. Seems to me you need to track down that weird noise if nothing else but to eliminate it as the problem. Maybe disconnect all the printers etc and unplug them from the wall. Bye the way, how often does this happen?

I didn't have the clunk sound with it, but my UFX recently misbehaved outputting Digital noise (through the analog outputs) and then one day went silent and wouldn't come back. i tried everything, including a new firewire cable. I had to send mine in for a new Power Supply. No issues since.

Hi Vanceen. As I am sure you are aware there are not many coponents in a computer that could make a clunking sound - perhaps a fan, a power supply, a mechanical HDD or even the raid enclosure. (I had an esata dual enclosure fail spectacularly and noisily a couple of years back). I too use the RME ufx and its clock is indeed renowned. I have a 5m usb cable on mine and it works flawlessly. Still, given that yours runs through a wall socket, it might be worth testing the UFX on a shorter cable just to rule out both the unit itself and the cable run as the problem.
 
Best of luck finding it - as you say that is a weird one!

Check power profile to make sure nothing is allowed to go idle (monitor, hard drives, USB ports, everything). The clunk sorta sounds like the printer is shifting to standby.

The dpc spiking alone might be causing dropouts. You could try checking in Windows>control panel> device manager for any HDMI audio drivers relating to the graphics card being loaded and disable them (unless you jse audio over HDMI perhaps). Craig Anderton started a thread on HDMI graphics card drivers a while ago because he found disabling them solved some problems.

The clunk might be almost anything, especially of you have printers switched on. If the PC is allowing USB ports to go to sleep then for whatever reason waking them up that can cause a printer or drive to twitch a little. Sleeping USB ports might explain the UFX disconnects as well. Check the Windows power scheme has USB susoend switched off and also got through the USB ports and connections in device manager, call up their properties and disable USB sleeping there as well and see if that helps.

Finally, how are the PC temperatures looking? A PC without access to cool air and adequate ventilation can get quite hot quite quickly. A 1,000 watt psu gives off quite a lot of heat on its own and if that hot air gets drawn back into the computer or can't escape in the first place.....

No matter what, you need to deal with the spike. Work on that while waiting for the parts. 
Normally a dpclat spike should not wack your drivers off line so it's not causing that issue, but you still want a stable machine with no spikes for running a DAW.
I myself had a bunch of weird issues and it turned out to be a faulty brand new power supply. SO that's a good move for sure. 

Is it possible you have a WiFi adapter on this computer?  If so, these frequently cause significant DPC Latency Spikes that can really jack up your sound.  If you DO happen to have a WiFi adapter on the computer, you can quickly test out whether or not knocking it out of the equation fixes your issues.
 
So, what you would do it, right before getting ready to launch Sonar, temporarily disable the WiFi adapter (if there is a switch or function key on the computer for doing so), or if there is no such switch, simply go into Windows Device Manager, scroll down to where the WiFi adapter is, then right-click on it and click on 'Disable'.  (NOT Remove or Uninstall).
 
Once the WiFi adapter is disabled, launch your Sonar session and test it all out, keeping track on your performance and any dropouts or crackles and such.
 
When done with the Sonar session, close Sonar, then go back into Windows Device Manager and Enable the WiFi adapter again, this will open up access to the internet again, and all should be fine.
 
Please review the above, and if your DO have a WiFi adapter, go ahead and try the above test, and post back here with the testing results.
 
THANKS!!! :)
 
Bob Bone
 

Yes, DPCLat isn't compatible with Windows 8 onwards.

A pity because it's output when it does work properly is much easier to interpret than latmon.

Sorry if I'm asking the obvious here, but do you have the latest PC firmware version installed in the UFX? I'll happily admit I'm groping around for possible causes of the issues you're having so if I'm stating the obvious please don't take offence.

You might be on to something with the USB cable length, though I've tested mine for an hour or so and it seems to run happily using a 5 metre Belkin USB extender cable plus a 1.8 metre Belkin USB cable, which is a similar total length to what you are using. How much reliability at this kind of cable length depends on the specific cable and USB port I have no idea. When the UFX drops out is its USB connection light still lit? I'm wondering if the connection between the cables is the problem, or maybe a crack in a cable core.

I'm rather curious about how the UFX does with a USB/ethernet adaptor whether that solves the problem or not. It's a setup I've not come across before.

No dropouts since setting up the USB / Ethernet  rig. I'm giving it a couple more days to make sure the problem's solved before changing anything else.
 
Still getting DPC latency spikes, but no audible artifacts, just as before.
 

Just a follow up in case anyone is interested.
 
Using this setup:
 
1. short USB cable to USB/Ethernet adapter
2. short Ethernet cable from adapter to female-female Ethernet wall plate
3. 50' new Cat6a cable to Ethernet/USB adapter, which plugs into computer
 
I was getting no dropouts at all, but a crackling noise appeared after playing back any file for more than a few minutes. This happened with any audio software, not just SONAR.
 
I substituted a new high quality 12" Cat6 for the short Cat5 cable I had been using. No difference.
 
I substituted a 25' Cat6 (not Cat6a) cable for the 50' Cat6a cable. No more crackles.
 
So for anyone with a USB cabling issue, I would recommend the USB/Ethernet adapter solution. The one I got was made by IOGear and cost about $60 at Newegg.
 
I haven't done any more testing, so I don't know exactly why replacing the long cable solved the problem. I see three possibilities:
 
1. The IOGear specifies Cat6. Could Cat6a be incompatible? (Probably showing my ignorance here.)
2. 50' was too long and 25' is OK. I doubt this, because you are supposed to be able to get USB connections over 160' with the USB/Ethernet adapter.
3. I had the excess length of the 50' Cat6a cable wrapped into a fairly tight coil, about 8" in diameter. Since there was about 35' of excess, this was a lot of cable in a pretty tight coil. Inductance? Who knows.
 
Since my problem is fixed, I probably won't do any more to find out precisely what happened.
 
Oh, yes, the latency is still with me, but no audible problems. And I still hear that noise from time to time, but it doesn't affect my audio at all. Zero dropouts now.
 
I hope this is helpful to someone.