Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 (USB audio interface) - Dropouts, ASIO, and other questions

I recently got a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 gen2 (USB audio interface).  I haven't used it much with Sonar yet, but have been listening to music on it as a test.
 
I am currently having dropouts while listening to music.  Every few minutes, the sound will cut out for a fraction of a second and then resume.  It's distracting and annoying, and makes me question whether the Scarlett can handle what I'd like it to do with Sonar, which is: multi-track audio recording, playback, and MIDI at the same time.
 
Playback dropouts like this never happen with my PCI sound cards, so I suspect it might be a USB (or Scarlett) issue.  DPC latency is fine (I just checked).
 
I have disabled USB power saving (in both the device manager and power management) as suggested in another thread.  That may have helped, as the interruptions as less frequent, but they still happen. I have also confirmed that the USB port is indeed 2.0 (by using a USB port viewing tool).
 
What else can I try as far as finding and eliminating the cause of the dropouts (USB interruptions)?
 
The Scarlett's current ASIO settings are:  44.1 hHz sample rate with 128 buffer size.
 
It appears that the 2nd gen Scarlett 2i4 only has one driver, and that's the ASIO driver I'm using:
https://global.focusrite.com/downloads?product=Scarlett+2i4


Normally I use WDM with my Delta 44 PCI card.  It's not a big deal to switch over to ASIO, but I'm wondering if there are ASIO-specific troubleshooting steps I should be taking (to deal with the dropouts).
 
And finally, are there ways of improving the performance and stability of the Scarlett (or any USB audio interface) by somehow increasing the power to it?  For example, should I connect it to a powered USB hub, which is then connected to the PC's USB2 port?
 
Thanks a bunch!
 

Thanks for the response!
 
I actually have 3 audio cards connected to the PC at the moment:
 
1) ASUS Xonar DX (PCI card)
2) M-Audio Delta-44 (PCI card)
3) Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 (USB)
 
I haven't removed the PCI cards yet because I don't trust the Scarlett to handle all my audio needs.  And since I listen to music all day, it would be a pain to yank the PCI cards out, listen to the Scarlett until I hear drop-outs, and then put the PCI card(s) back in.  Would disabling a PCI card or two via Device Manager be worth testing, or is it not as effective as physically removing the PCI cards?
 
I don't see any video card audio drivers enabled in the Device Manager.
 
I can't disconnect from the Internet because I work from home, and am always online.
 
I didn't notice anything hogging the CPU, besides the normal games, programming apps, etc.  Note that I am not trying to use Sonar; I'm simply trying to play music in the background (using foobar2000) like I've done for years with PCI cards.  It's very common for me to be playing a demanding game, ripping a CD, and listening to music all at the same time, with no problems.  I've never had dropouts listening to music until today, with the Scarlett.
 
Are USB audio interfaces more easily interrupted than PCI cards?  Are they not as capable of handling multitasking?

Well you are doing lots of stuff I avoid with my DAW. I think that the Scarlett is a device made for working with Audio inside professional software and was never intended to be used for PC chores. 
I don't have any issues with my set up but as I said, I have no other audio device available so Windows seems happy to use my Scarlett. 
The audio buffer setting are the key here and those in my case are set in Mix Control. 
Most people in your situation, only one computer, will use their PC audio via the on board sound card and run just their DAW through the audio interface and monitors. Of course this requires a second set of speakers for the on board audio. You could share speakers via a small mixer or dedicated device. 
 
Disabling the PCI cards in device manager may work fine for testing what's up. 
In my case it was a Sound Blaster which required total removal. 
I have an old PCI card made by Card Deluxe which co-existed with my USB interfaces just fine. It still working happily away in my old backup DAW. To bad PCI has become obsolete. Seems those interfaces were all rock solid ( other than Creative)  
 
Another issue found with the 2i4 is it runs on USB power. I have read lots of posts where this was the issue. So make sure to try your best USB ports. Not much juice from USB , in my opinion it's a very bad design. The should have allowed for the option of wall power like the Tascam us2x2, same price point. 

I have found that if I am just listening to music and playing games, the drop-outs are about once every 20 minutes.
 
When I am uploading files to my web site, however, I get drop-outs every minute or so.
 
Does this help isolate the possible cause of the drop-outs?

Just to chime in.. I use my Scarlett for both DAW use and windows general use. I'm under the impression that ASIO is used only within the DAW and other drivers are used for regular windows sounds

I tried yet another USB port (which is not one of the blue ones) and was able to go more than 27 minutes without a dropout, before I had to go.  Later, I tested for about an hour in Sonar, and didn't have any dropouts, just the normal crackles whenever I try to move clips around in real time (which is what I've always gotten with Platinum regardless of sound card).
 
So it could be that I've picked a "lucky" USB port.  I will test more tomorrow to see if I get any dropouts.
 
If I do, then I will try to dig up a USB PCI card from one of the boxes of old hardware in my closet.  I'm pretty sure I have one laying around.  I never gave those things much consideration until now!
 
I ran a couple of latency monitors a few times and didn't see anything alarming.  That's not surprising, since I wasn't having dropouts with my other sound cards, and the latency monitors don't seem to be checking specific audio devices.
 
As for startup items, I'm pretty good at periodically going through msconfig and services.msc and pruning out the optional stuff.  And I avoid installing a lot of apps.  Mostly just stuff for work, games, and multimedia.  My antivirus is AVG Free and it hasn't given my audio-related problems in the past, so I don't suspect it of causing problems now.
 
But I am really unfamiliar with USB sound cards, so can't really trust my instincts too much!
 
Anyway I'll see how things go tomorrow on the potentially "lucky" USB port.  Fingers crossed (for the Nth time this week...)!

Cactus Music
My antivirus is AVG Free and it hasn't given my audio-related problems in the past, so I don't suspect it of causing problems now.
 
BINGO! 

I thought the same...I used AVG Free for years on XP but it caused problems with W10, had to uninstall it.

I've been listening to the Scarlett for 3 hours straight this morning, and haven't had any dropouts. So, maybe the last USB port I picked to try is indeed "lucky".  I have no idea why, though.  Hmm...
 
Anyway, I'll keep using the Scarlett today and see if it gives me any dropouts.
 
Does the fact that one USB port seems to behave better than others suggest that the problem is not AVG related?

Tripecac
 
Does the fact that one USB port seems to behave better than others suggest that the problem is not AVG related?

Yes, if you're no longer detecting any other interruptions, the problems were likely due to the USB3 port.

Hmm, I thought the blue ports were USB 2 and the non-blue ones were USB 1 or 3, but it sounds like I had that backwards!  So maybe that's all it took: connecting to a non-blue (USB 2) instead of blue (USB 3) port.  Regardless, I listened all day yesterday (10+ hours) on a non-blue port, and didn't have a single drop-out!
 
As for anti-virus, I know AVG gets rough reviews at times, but so do all anti-virus programs.  Well, at least the free ones.  And the last time I paid for AV was Norton, and that was a LOT more intrusive and buggy than AVG.  Windows Defender is indeed pretty limited on Windows 7.