Now to enlighten on the ULA agreement made..if so, you cannot use the OS of choice to a satisfactory state of, for and so said designed to run applications designed and signed to work with...As stipulated by...and it is imposed error, or is made unusable by services rendered onto...to use your devices, and internet, and take intel from...when they do...which causes you devices and systems to fail or cause faults ..errors hangs, and bad performence through their usage of your paid for service of third party providers...((bandwidth/Device/work load))that system was designed to be...yet never is totally Your system running that ULA agreement OS licence to use....they use or while they use, you cannot use...Yet you pay for Bandwidth...and all the systems devices, plus electrical to run...and the OS itself....If you find it is not running when setup to your satisfaction...after following tech help, and proper state of setup...and it is futile, or made so by...X of the MS development, and or the usage of their implied, and or words their in of the ULA usage...which cause it not to work as so stated by third party design, or the use their of......You can get all your money back...because of the non use of...trying to make it work...if they cannot...and you cannot...and MS cannot.
 
That said....If I have to pay..or you...or others for to make the machine work...so the ULA is then violated, and usery of that licence does not perform the task of working 100% as said before clicking on the button..I agree box....if it does not perform, after some seeking, and involved technical support...and time to fix of a numbered time waiting on updates, to solve for bugs or corruption of..or with.....Then the ULA is violated by the manufacturing or manufacturers!...if so let run as they say...and it does not work proper.
 
In my case..win 10 has corrupted 2 x99 machines....MS cannot fix...and MS updated updates screwed up!
 
and it was never working Proper!
 
Thus the violation is valid by them.
 
They are spying..and it is in their interests to continue to do so, and impose it on all lower OS states, or is already since win 95...a door into all systems using MS OS....if you think you can get things running , when and if they decide, to mess up your happy working business..or find intel about you...they can shut you down, screw up, and mess all your settings.....when ever they want to.
 
That said....Trust MS?....while you pull cards, tweak this or that...get this or buy that to try...costing you...when they are screwing it up so you pay more, and pay more., and do the RND paying to do it...instead of them paying you....and still buying into the best of....You still get crap audio.....Are you now entitled to a refund if it still be not perfectly so working?.
 
 
Well depends on how long you let them lead you down that road.
 
But, if you reduce the irq usage..(proper setup of all devices and fw drivers and such).the noises of those interruptions get less a bother....but editing is required...or...if you seek perfection....You could say, it is not working proper....and demand that refund...via legal trade, buy and sell LAWs which over rule ULA>depending where you live<, and the laws stipulated in marketing agreements, of sold produce, or product under that estate of governance...Regardless of ULA...theft is illegal, and fraud is also, in some places!...Marketing has to have none....(yet in some governance, allowable time to fix is granted the seller By some laws put in or over to allow Correction)...how long is too long?....30 years?..still has issues eh?....long enough?...I'd say.
 
So..be mindful...these folks trying to help in troubleshooting are the best people I know.....And hats off...Blessings surely.
 
But is it being made futile by the OS makers now?.....8 cores or more ...or two cpus and or a better way?...I don't understand this one cpu thing..and sharing irqs being of any hope to solve for spying and crap being forced upon...and setting sabotaged by those very things done now today on some of the newer OS renderings...and now being pushed onto older os versions....so all must have issues still with....since Commador and Atari...."AUDIO"....and still a nightmare to get MS OS to play nice with....so many ports of calling always with pops clicks or worse...squeelling .
 
Perhaps asking cortana...why does my audio make funny noises....it might answer?
 
Well that didn't work either.
 
Just saying it like I seen it...and tried just to see.....hope the OP finds some truth in all trying...and hopefully getting something working Proper with.
 
Still have hope...But if the users want to be troubleshooters....and it continues into the new ..years to come...imagine what you could be doing...with tape!
 
wink

Unplug everything you absolutely don't need to test your DAW.  Then go into device manager and disable them.  Don't think of this as a giving up anything for the long term solution, it's just a method of troubleshooting until you narrow down the offending driver or device.
 
Also, try a clean boot that loads only the essentials, in case the laptop is running something unnecessary in the background.  http://www.thewindowsclub.com/what-is-clean-boot-state-in-windows
 

Your issue is so extreme that one would think it must be a driver issue. I have Roland OctaCapture interface and it works perfectly but I have discovered that it must be turned on after windows boots. If the computer goes to sleep  or I change sample rates (almost never do that), it is practically guaranteed to crash. One difference though is that pops and crackles are not an issue for me unless I have the latency set too low, and it sounds like you have investigated that. So, I would look hard at two issues: follow the recommended power up sequence and adjust  computer power setting to never sleep (or religiously reboot when using the daw, I have a laptop i7 that seems to be paralyzed everytime it wakes up), and, make absolutely sure that the compuuter is actually using the interface and not somehow defaulting to onboard audio because the symptom of snap, crackle pop with virtually no load on the system really sounds lkke the interface is somehow getting bypassed.

If you can swing it, you might consider upgrading to Win 10.  That will improve the odds of your USB 3 USB ports working with your devices.

Just to update, it looks like things may be under control. Followed every bit of advice here and on the cakewalk advisory page as well as sweet water's help on win 7 concerning latency.
That little checker doesn't see anything jumpy over 150 or so unless I've done something I know would cause it to jump.
I messed with it for a while the last few days and no rice crispies.. (ssnap crackle pop).
Just hope things stay that way.
So...my interface is set at its default setting. Should I inch it lower, to see how far down I can get, then back it up?
My intention is to run anywhere from 8 to 24 tracks or so.
Not so many analog as synthetic tracks (iif that helps an answer). And the synthetic tracks are mostly going to come from outboard midi gear. (Roland xv 5080 rack synth-actuall 2 of them)...as well as an Alesis dmpro drum module.

I have a lot to lurn.
Been on reel to reels for decades, then the Roland vs hard disc recorders. I just like the idea of unlimited tracks, so many plug-ins..

My platinum is new, bought at Christmas. I also grabbed the Waves Horizon bundle as well as the Abbey Road Collection. No pirates on this boat...all authentic...
Can't wait to get rolling.