Audio Dropouts - Unlikely Cause

(Reposted from the legacy Sonar forum)
 
Here's some free advice, in case anyone else ever experiences the same issue I just had. After spending several months tuning X2 on my custom-built DAW, I ran stable for a while, but suddenly started experiencing audio dropouts about a month ago. CPU was not stressed (i7 3.0 Ghz) running at about 15% under load, RAM was plenty (12 GB) at 60% free even with 5 instances of Kontakt 5, Windows 8 OS with nothing but DAW software running, save for NOD32 which has a very light footprint.
 
I tried everything under the sun to try and resolve the issue - nothing. I finally concluded that I needed to swap out my 7400RPM audio drive and, though I intended to purchase a 10000RPM Raptor, I went and bought an SSD instead. While driving back, I noticed an audio dropout thread on a Cubase forum (of all places!) in which someone - after almost a year of debugging - realized that his USB-powered controller was the cause of his dropouts when the machine was over a given threshold of activity. I ran home to check and, sure enough, my Roland PCR800 power adapter was unplugged, which means the controller was sucking USB power instead. As soon as I plugged the power back in, dropouts were gone!
 
Note to the wise out there: Do NOT run USB-powered external gear on your DAW. You could get very unexpected results - including inexplicable audio dropouts!

Now THAT's funny.
 
Bob Bone
 

Well I don't want to count my chickens just yet, but, I have been having many problems with graphics and drop outs, I read this thread and decided to unplug my APRO 500.

Voila - no problems with hanging screensets anymore and corresponding audio dropout.

Early days yet, but you may have just inadvertently nailed my problem.

Off to buy a 9v power supply for the APRO. I'm guessing my 450W PC power supply may not be man enough for my PC's needs.

Hope this has it nailed.

Thanks for the heads up!

Yup - please post back to let us know if that helped you.  That knowledge being available may help some future dude or dudette with the same problem.  :)
 
Bob Bone
 

+1 to riojazz's comment.
 
Bob Bone

riojazz
If I understand the problem correctly, the tip is not quite this:  "Do NOT run USB-powered external gear on your DAW".  The tip is to connect an external power supply when you use such equipment (when possible).
 

FWIW, I have two external drives connected (via USB) to my DAW but they are not power sourced until I need them. Been using them that way for over a year now.
 
No problems that I know of.
 
Same is true of my laptop (which I run SONAR on from time to time).

I checked and found that my A-500 Pro is pulling 500ma of USB power. I think this is the design max for USB and my quad capture is also running 500 ma.
 
I too am going to explore wall warts. If you do buy a power supply make sure the current rating in milliamps is high enough, and make extra sure that the polarity is correct. Some have positive on the center pin and some are negative. Good quality devices usually have protection built in but some will just blow up (figuratively).