Sonar 4 won't record

Ok I know I should upgrade and plan to as soon as I buy a bigger H.D., but for now I am using ver.4. I just installed the new interface and have confirmed on a laptop that all is working fine from the ultra. On my desktop I previously used a old Aardvark lx6 and before that a Layla 20 bit. Always worked fine with sonar. With the ultra, I can pick all the inputs and outs and the asio panel all seem to be working and recognized. But I can arm a audio track and nothing. No meter activity at all. The M-audio meters all show working from their correct in and outs but sonar will not record or even show input activity. I only get by with sonar as I only use it for simple things but have always got it to record until now. Any help is appreciated

Track input selection matches driver names, audio engine is lit, and The M-Audio is your Playback and Record timing master in Options > Audio? How about playback of existing/imported audio?

EDIT: And Ableton is not running at the same time as SONAR, I trust...?

the ultra, I can pick all the inputs and outs and the asio panel all seem to be working and recognized. But I can arm a audio track and nothing. No meter activity at all.

Make sure you selected the correct input for that track.
left 1/2  = input 1
Right 1/2 = input 2
Stereo 1/2 = both input 1 and 2
 
Left 3/4 = input 3
Right 3/4 = input 4
Stereo 3/4 = both inputs 3 and 4
 
Cj
 
 

Whats listes as your recording and playback timing manager? You should re-profile your sound card, since you uninstalled your aardvark
Follow this, per sonar's help files

Click Options | Audio | Advanced.  Set your Driver Mode to ASIO.  If you do not see Driver Mode, make sure the box next to “Always use mme interface” is NOT checked.  Click OK and restart the program. 
Next, Click Options | Audio:
On the Drivers tab:
Make sure your M-Audio card is selected under both inputs and outputs.  If it appears grayed out, deselect all drivers, in both inputs and outputs, then select your M-Audio card.  If changes are made, click OK and restart the program. 

NOTE: M-Audio also provides very reliable WDM drivers. If you experience problems in ASIO Driver Mode, you may want to consider using WDM as an alternative.
On the general tab:
Make sure one of your M-Audio card drivers is selected as Playback Timing master.  Click OK.  Restart the program if prompted. 

Finally, all audio playback will occur from the M-Audio device itself.  Make sure you have your speakers or headphones connected to its outputs. 

This is similar to my problem with the M-audio fast track and my desktop. I had a SB Audigy card and like you, was having problems so I  tried removing it and the drivers. Still nothing worked. I had to re-install windows and start from scratch and since then all worked perfectly. Must be little thinks that are hidden in the registry that interfere. Any how Re doing the OS was a overall  a good move as it even lowered my dpclat readings and freed up disk space. a CLEAN MACHINE!

You don't need to reinstall Windows from scratch. That would be my last resort.

Check Windows device manager and make sure its recognizing the Fasttrack and says its operating properly.

I have checked the device manager and all ok with the m-audio.    the playback timing master is set to maudio asio out 1 fastrack ultra.
 the record timing master is maudio usb 2.0 analog in 1 fastrack ultra
audio driver bit depth is 24 (greyed out)
sample rate 48000    file bit depth 24
Advanced tab.
i/o buffer 128   driver mode asio    dithering=rectangular
always open all devices checked and the synchronation is set to trigger and freewheel.
On the drivers tab timing offset says 0.000 msec
the input shows 1 usb 2.0 analog in fastrack ultra, also 2 and 3 same all selected with the spdif not chosen but there.
output drives show 1,3,5 maudio usb 2.0 software out fastrack ultra.
 Wondering if that should show software out?  Also I tried a tutorial that is midi and that did have playback. though no audio. with sonar running or not I do have sound running through the ultra with a keyboard that is plugged in to input 5,6 . Also can hear a mic through it plugged in to input 1.   Still trying to figure it out.

I think my next step will be to disable my realtek card in the bios.

Worth a try, but should not be necessary; I personally prefer to leave onboard sound active for use by Windows and generic multimedia apps, reserving my interface for use by SONAR. And, for the record, there is no particular issue with switching from a PCI interface to USB. I can switch back and forth between my E-MU PCI and M-Audio Omnistudio without a hitch. You just have to make sure only one driver is active at a time with SONAR in ASIO mode.

As a troubleshooting step. you might try taking SONAR out of the loop by downloading the free CEntrance ASIO latency checker, and seeing if it can recognize and measure latency of the Fastrack independently:

http://centrance.com/downloads/ltu/

Yea, the window sounds from WMP or itunes is a windows setting. But for now, lets concentrate on Sonar.

Lets start form scratch, cause this is getting confusing. So this is what I want you to do.

1.) I want you to delete your aud.ini file. To find it, do a windows search and select custom search and check search for hidden folders.
2.) After windows finds your aud.ini folder, I want you to open it up and delete all the contents in it.
3.) Then turn your m audio card on and wait about 20 to 30 seconds.
4. Then start Sonar
5.) If it doesn't automatically run the wave profiler, change the driver mode to WDM and perform it manually.
6.) After its done switch to ASIo and make sure the racing and playback timing masters are listed for the analog inputs and outputs of the m audio card. Also make sure the drivers are selected in option/audio/drivers.

7.) Exit form the menus and then make sure your master bus is outputted to your main outs ans make sure your main outs is listed as your sound card's 1/2 outs

It will work
Cj

You could also go into the registry and remove all references to the Aardvark. Make sure you back it up first. Also you could run CCleaner to rid your registry of broken links.

BTW: You are still using Windows XP SP3, right?