Dropout problem

I couldn't get rid of the Red Spikes either.  But by disabling (supposedly non-active) stuff (including wireless lan driver and Windows Search) as well as increasing CW latency I was able to record an entire book in flawless mono!    The theory that somehow the BIOS is to blame makes some sense, although I have a hard time imagining there could possibly be that much BIOS overhead - at least accidentally -- perhaps the BIOS maker's intentionally cripple the time responsiveness of the BIOS to prevent our laptops from competing with whatever it is that professional audio workstations use.

However I am not quite willing to concede defeat to computer hardware manufacturers.   Audio visual is HUGE on personal computers (why else would we have 16:9 wide laptop screens when a vertical orientation would be MUCH better for reading PDF's?) but somehow, no one in the music world seems to be complaining loudly enough for the laptop manufacturers to hear.
 
I am not surprised your son had problems iwth Ubuntu, which I consider another bloated OS.  He might try 64 Studio or perhaps Puppy Linux, far more responsive in my experience, and 64 Studio is set up for audio from the start, although it has some limitations for general usage.  I did not install it on this laptop because I dislike the idea of having to devote an entire, multi-purpose computing machine to one application.
 
Bottom line a dual 2.67 Gigahertz CPU laptop (Gigahertz:  A unit of frequency equal to one billion (10⁹) hertz. Also called gigacycle.*)  should be major overkill for recording only 44.1khz audio especially when the DAC is an external sound card doing all the heavy lifting!  (Kilohertz:  A unit of frequency equal to 1,000 hertz.)**   All the CPU is really having to do is paint the GUI screen and channel the resulting stream of bits to the proper hard drive sectors!   What could the OS (or BIOS as you state) be possibly doing that requires so much attention and is not easily turned off with a single switch?
 
* thefreedictionary.com / gigahertz
** thefreedictionary.com / kilohertz
 
 

I take it you are using Windows 7? Well, if you are, then turn off all the automatic stuff Windows 7 does.
Schedules for defrag, updating Windows, anything and everything. Set Power to always on, and anything else you may find in Control Panel.
 
Windows is always set up for general computing, for recording or using it as a DAW, you have to tweak Windows to perform and not do what it wants to.
 
I guess I can not explain it all, and it will take some time to thoroughly go through Control Panel and turn off automatic things it does, and thoroughly check out your computer.
 
I have a ACPI x64 computer, and the drivers are from Microsoft, if you have manufacturer's drivers (which does not seem like it should be) then perhaps there are updates for your computer. I don't use Wi-fi and it should be disabled in Device Manager - Right click on Computer and then get up Device Manager or find it in Control Panel. It can be Re-enabled when you want to use it. I do it all the time and in the Local Areal Connection made a Desktop icon link so I turn it off or on (Disable or Enable) when I want to use the Internet. Otherwise it is off. I don't use Wi-fi at all and even took it out of my computer I use cable so I never use Wi-fi. Perhaps you do, perhaps it can be disabled and reenabled like I do for my Internet Connection.
 
If nothing else there are articles on the Internet for tweaking a Windows 7 OS computer for audio recording probably, but I went through the computer myself and found out all Windows 7 does. It does this because most people using a computer do not know what they are doing.
 
http://s4-us3.startpage.com/do/search?cmd=process_search&pid=49dcb964aae1d19dada2683b3bc356d4&nossl=1
 
The main bottom line is if you have not set up the computer, then set it up to record with on audio.
It is not set up, until you do that, because most people do not use a computer for that anyway, so Microsoft in their infinite wisdom set it up for general purpose computing and for people who do not know what they are doing on a computer except to run a program or work a job where someone else sets it up in a Office but at home you have to do that yourself or find out how to do it.
 
Of course then you will have to do some things like defragging the harddrive and updating anti-virus programs and Windows Defender (probably on your computer) and Updating Windows on your own and not allow it to be done automatically. Of course if your Internet connection is off, then it can not do that until you are connected again.
 
If bad device drivers, or anything like that, perhaps there is an update for your computer from the manufacturer - I got one for Intel Chip that controls something to do with the Internet - downloaded the program and ran it, and now my computer is updated. I just looked it was Intel Network Connections update program from Intel.
 
Anything that runs in the background can be turned-off, including starting up the computer start programs in Administrative Tools -> System Configuration - (you know that microsoft started that up with trying to make their programs like Office seem to start faster because there is always a little start-up program running when you load up the OS and start your computer. Now, everyone does it, with automatic program update little program or something else that does not need to start up when you start your computer. That is what System Configuration is for - run your computer the way you want to - but do not turn off things that need to run - well it may take awhile to try some things. Like Adobe Update program for Adobe Reader perhaps on your computer - it does not need to run at start-up of your computer - if those programs you feel are interferring then you may want to have Windows not run them when your computer starts up.
 
Well, babbled on long enough, but everything in Control Panel icons should be looked at and set for maximum performance so your computer runs the way you want it to.
 
There is also "verifier" on your computer since Windows 2K. It checks (but usually only for crashes) your drivers to see if a driver is causing a problem on your computer. If nothing else you can put in the driver you wish to check.
Just click START - and in Search (which use to be run but just searching now) then type verifier -and start up the program if you want to see what it does.
 
A lot can be looked up on the Internet in probably several places to tweak your computer and then that will be that.
 
Audio does not take as much as video but still, the computer is not really set up for it.
 
 

It is not that all of it is needed. Powering down USB ports not in use is not a priority with me. I leave the power up, and the computer powered up all the time. No, not all of has to be done, and Windows Defender never interferred with running audio anyway, and neither does my anti-virus. For me, instead of hibernating anything on the computer, my computer is either started-up from power off (the computer off) or else my computer is on all the way. The point is I guess, do what you want to do as to regards to your computer, and most times most things will not interfere, and the Internet I Enable or Disable all the time, and I turn on my computer all the time and power down completely instead of hibernate. It all takes a little time from Windows Defender running when the computer starts like my anti-virus checking out the computer, but even after that, I can have it running while recording audio or not. Right now, that does not interfere with anything as far as I can tell.
 
the links I gave should have worked,  they worked for me, that is all I can say about it.
 
But just to give you an idea of what can be done with an OS, to tweak it persay if you need to.
I don't understand everything in the computer anyway, with some stuff so I may look at it and not do anything with it. But with what I have found out, the only things I do manually, is once a month on or after the second Tuesday, is the time for Windows Update. Once a month probably is enough. Anti-virus everyday, but I choose to do that manually an it usually takes a minute. (unless it was on my XP computer and then since it had been a month not using it - I had 120 files to download - it still updated and everything that was needed was done on that computer).
 
Defragging the harddrive, I do myself, since I have partitions on my harddisk as logical drive letters and that does not take that long, plus the fact that with Windows OS 7 you can do that and still run other programs or be on the Internet while doing it. My harddisk partitions are not monsterous  size partitions, but that will be that. (on XP now, perhaps running defrag program meant that was it, since it was a 32-bit computer, thus a standstill, thus why some people do it at night when asleep.
 
All that is meant is run the computer the way you want to, and be aware that other programs needed to run or not may be running because either the program was not set not to do that, or because the person on the computer had to look at the programs and see what it will do. I guess some people would not bother.
 
But for audio, some of it may help and certainly it won't hurt to know about it though.
Good luck, I can get up to 54 tracks of audio without a problem but Sonar version I have only goes up to 64 tracks. I rather not try that many again, but then again, once I did that and the song - goofy as it may be - is in my signature, because 11 or tracks were just her singing, the rest of the mess was done by me.

Mainly for the yucks of it I guess now.
 
as to that song, if you want to listen to Guitarhacker's or Frank Tanton's version both on this forum with other songs, then the link is her page at Soundcloud. I did it late, just to add to the already 8 trillion version as I say it for the yucks of it I guess.
 
https://soundcloud.com/imogen-heap
 
can do your own version also if you want to, her vocals are down at the bottom of all those same songs.
But after that her page to send it to her is still there also.
I'm done.
 
 P.S. if the link did not work then perhaps it is because it is Startpage, I don't use Goggle directly anymore, not that it makes much difference, but then.........................
https://startpage.com/eng/download-startpage-plugin.html
 
but that may be the reason then for that search link.
 
And for that reason I do not use Bing from Microsoft either.
 
Well, that should do it for a few years, enough babbling.