Make sure that Windows is NOT set to use the same sound card as Sonar. You don't have to disable the built in card if there is no conflict, in fact it is good to have as a "decoy" for Windows. Set Windows to use the built in sound card for both Play and Record and then check the box to only use default devices. This will keep Windows from trying to use your good card. Sonar does not use any of the settings in control panal, so it can use the good cards drvier directly. You should also set Windows sounds to no sounds just in case.
Network cards also use up CPU even if no cable is attched ! You can use device manager to disable the network card driver and get back some power. You can enable it again when you are done using Sonar and you will get your connection back without having to reboot... that stuff works great.
Any other programs that are "active" all the time like virus scan can also cause problems. So check to see if there is a way to pause those or disable them while recording. You do start / run / msconfig then click on the startup tab to see all the stuff that loads when your computer starts. msconfig will let you uncheck things that cause problems and put them back later if you need them so you don't have to hack the registry. msconfig gives you a nice GUI interface to control that stuff.
If you have problems with sonar "finding" your built in sound card driver when it's trying to profile drivers use device manager to disable it just till you get Sonar all set up. Then you can turn it back on and Sonar won't mess with it again.
If you have iTunes installed it might "lock" the sound card driver that is set in Windows control panel but that's OK if you have the built in one in there as a decoy.. no harm done. However, there is an Apple iTunes thing that starts when you start the computer so you might want to uncheck that with msconfig just to save resources, iTunes will still work if you launch it. The idea is that is WAITS till you tell it to go.
post edited by ohhey - 2008/10/15 15:50:29