Sonar Platinum on lowest end hardware, the first expierence

Interesting.  Thank you for sharing your experience.
 
I would have thought the more simple the computer, the easier it would be to install and use Sonar.  Your experience indicates many of the Sonar defaults do not anticipate simple computer use.  Perhaps Cakewalk can change some defaults to make installation on small computers easier.

Finally got round to trying this on my Windows table (a Linx 1010). I wasn't that interested in using the onboard sound so I hooked it up to my Focusrite 6i6 and was pleasantly surprised at how well it works.  I thought memory might be an issue as it only has 2Gb but it seems to cope well enough to do some basic tracking.  The main reason I wanted to try it is because my main PC is pretty noisy so I should be able to use this when recording vocals and acoustic guitar (most other things I record by DI or generate in-the-box).  Great to have another option - thanks for azslow3 for the idea.
 
AMB
 

TranceCanada
I can't say I've been as successful with my Surface Pro 3, has an i5-4300, 4 gb ram, 64 bit, with realtek audio.  I have Asio4all setup and Splat is sluggish to start playback and I never get sound uness I'm using headphones.  I've noticed when I start Sonar up through the theme editor it runs much smoother but still no audio unless I'm using my headphones.

That should work better.  I tossed Platinum x64 onto my cheap laptop to have something to play my VST softsynths with when traveling.  It works surprisingly well with Realtek audio and ASIO4ALL.  The built in speakers sound like crap (as always), but sound is good through my Sennheiser HD280's.
 
My laptop (Acer Aspire E15) specs are similar to yours. i5-4210U 1.7Ghz (turbo to 2.5Ghz), 4GB DDR3, running Windows 10 Home x64 on a 5400RPM HDD.
 
Did you try to optimize for audio?  Laptops come with all kinds of services, process, and scheduled tasks that launch at boot time.  Take a look at Autoruns for Windows (free) at https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902 to get a handle on what is running that may be causing your issues.

telecharge

TranceCanada
I can't say I've been as successful with my Surface Pro 3, has an i5-4300, 4 gb ram, 64 bit, with realtek audio.  I have Asio4all setup and Splat is sluggish to start playback and I never get sound uness I'm using headphones.  I've noticed when I start Sonar up through the theme editor it runs much smoother but still no audio unless I'm using my headphones.

Here is a good resource for you:
http://surfaceproaudio.com/tweaking-windows-10-on-the-surface-pro-4-for-music-production
 
The whole blog is good. The guy that runs it (Robin Vincent) is a professional writer with a long history in computer based music production.

Agree!  I have viewed a few other videos by this guy.  He's good.  That's a very informative & concise overview of the basics to optimize any Windows PC for audio. 
 
Towards the end he covers the Windows Task Manager startup tab.  I do like the new task manager in Windows 8.1/10, but IMHO it doesn't go deep enough on the start up programs and processes.
 
If you have already done all of these steps and still have issues, you really should look into Microsoft Technet Sysinternals Autoruns utility, to clean up the unnecessary background stuff.

TranceCanada
 
telecharge: The video was pretty interesting, but It didn't change anything.
 
abacab: I got the Technet Sysinternals Autoruns utility, but holy crap I have no idea what I'm looking for in there
 
Also the funny thing is I can get FL Studio to work no problem, but I'd rather be using Sonar

Like he said in the beginning of the video, it's just the basics. There are also other tips, tricks, and tutorials on the blog.
 
Before you go mucking about with Sysinternals, I suggest trying a clean boot to start with and then see if/how Sonar runs.
 
If you want to get into Sysinternals, here is a guide.
 
Cakewalk also has this Windows Optimization Guide.

TranceCanada
Awesome I'll check those out.  I still find it funny how the only time I do get it work though is when I open it through the Theme Editor and have headphones plugged in, without openning through the Theme Editor it doesn't even try to work

 
Your issue with launching Sonar, and it's sluggish performance could be a separate issue from the headphones problem.
 
Referring to your last comment about the headphones, that does sound strange.  Actually it could be just a speaker mis-configuration.  When I plug my headphones into my laptop, the Realtek HD Audio Manager pops up a dialogue to confirm what I just inserted.  I get sound either way. You may want to look at Speaker Properties (right-click on taskbar speaker icon, select Playback devices), and ensure you have selected "Use this device (enabled)".  I'm running ASIO4ALL on my laptop too.  Do you now have, or have you ever installed any other audio devices besides the onboard Realtek audio and/or ASIO4ALL, that may have installed another driver?
 
Regarding performance troubleshooting, telecharge provided a link to the clean boot method.  That is good.  Because it seems that this discussion is assuming that you may have a software conflict somewhere.  A clean boot would be a good thing to try next.

If the Autoruns appears overwhelming to you, and you are not comfortable mucking around in Windows, maybe it would be best to find a friend or computer guy to take a look for you.  The direct link to the how-to-geek page for Autoruns begins here: http://www.howtogeek.com/...internals-pro/lesson6/
 
Here's the quick TL/DR for Autoruns:
 
Autoruns is really is just an advanced version of msconfig "System Configuration" shown in the clean boot tutorial. I find that Autoruns allows me to go beyond basics with drivers and such.  The app opens up with the "Everything" tab showing.  That is mind blowing, so you can skip that tab. 
 
The only tabs in Autoruns to be currently concerned with are "Logon" (like Startup from Task Manager), "Scheduled Tasks", "Services", and sometimes "Drivers", as these are the main items that can load at startup.  If there is a conflict and you determine that it isn't a startup program, it's probably time to be looking somewhere in the "Scheduled tasks", "Services", or "Drivers" area.
 
You can browse each of these categories.  Every line item also displays the description and publisher name.  As with the safe boot method, do not turn anything from Microsoft off. Also use care with anything that looks like it might relate to your on-board PC hardware, or related to any Intel hardware support.
 
For "Logon" you can start by turning off startup apps not related to your DAW.  These were covered in the basics video and the Safe Boot tutorial, but also appear here.  If you are not sure what an item does, you can Google it.  Simply uncheck an item and you are set.  Autoruns will not delete that entry, so you can return and re-enable anything.  Reboot to update Windows with the changes you have selected.
 
If that doesn't help, then you can move on to "Scheduled Tasks". I've never noticed anything here that can't be temporarily disabled, but to be safe, leave Microsoft alone.
 
Next up is the "Services" and "Drivers" tabs.  I have learned that many hardware devices install both a service and a driver. By disabling the service, the driver is still free to load at boot.  So if a driver is causing a conflict, you have two choices.  You can uninstall the troublesome device driver.  Or just uncheck it in autoruns and reboot. That will prevent it from loading into memory. Some devices also install a taskbar icon or control panel type app that launches with the startup apps.  If you only turn that startup app off, the related services and drivers may still be loading at boot.  Remember you can always Google anything you see if you have questions.
 
Best of luck!

TranceCanada
I have managed to get it to open nicely and smoothly now no matter how I open it

Would you be kind enough to let us know what got it working for you?