pwalpwal
the nvidia control panel has settings-per-app, it's worth checking those for sonar if you haven't already
 

 
I've looked around in those settings a little bit, but I wouldn't know which ones to adjust (if any) to try to help fix the behavior I'm experiencing.

I am using an older Nvidia card GTX560Ti with the latest Nvidia drivers (currently version 373.06) and with the default settings and I do not experience any stuttering audio and dropouts in Sonar Platinum - with FF open or closed.

When ever I install the Nvidia drivers, I do a custom install and I only select the driver and the PhysX System Software.  I deselect the others. Sometimes I tick the box that says "Perform a clean installation"

Might be worth a try.

If this is not a faulty graphics card, then there has to be something else going on with your system other than the Sonar software itself.

I wish I could be more help.

Note: I know I have mentioned this and I may be labouring the point, but I am not 100% convinced you do not have a faulty graphics card.

The solution is to uninstall the video driver in device manager, restart and let Windows find the correct video driver.

After you do this you will say wow. The Nvidia add ons don't cause any problems.

promidi
When ever I install the Nvidia drivers, I do a custom install and I only select the driver and the PhysX System Software.  I deselect the others. Sometimes I tick the box that says "Perform a clean installation"

Might be worth a try.

 
Unfortunately, I've already done that several times, with no success.
 

promidi
Note: I know I have mentioned this and I may be labouring the point, but I am not 100% convinced you do not have a faulty graphics card.

 
Nor am I, which is why I've begun reaching out to NVIDIA/EVGA to see if they might be able to help me out with a replacement or something. We'll see.
 

Bluegrasser
The solution is to uninstall the video driver in device manager, restart and let Windows find the correct video driver.

 
If I do that, I lose Aero and some other graphical features. I'd rather just open up a Firefox window or Picture Viewer when working in Cakewalk.

Things that pops into mind:
a) did you check for bios and chipset updates from computer manufacturer?
Various things may be used by grapics drivers now. Buying a computer I always had a couple of those updates the following years at least.
b) for test only - go to windows performance settings and select optimize for performance, you may looose aero then, but just for troubleshooting if related. Certain grapics acceleration stuff create problems, like background shadow on popupmenus etc, I had that very thing opening a menu and got pops in audio and just turned that off. If related you might get a way with disabling just a simple feature like that and keep the rest of aero.
c) bios settings about share graphics ram or similar - don't remember wording. Something todo with mapping graphics into normal ram space or something. Just change as a test. New card with more memory may inflict on this.
d) does firefox or other software install dll's in own folder rather than in common files folder. If doing that windows may reuse a dll already open when ff runs, making things go smooth. Process Exlorer can tell you about what dll's are open in every process and what it is dependent on. Long shot, and not easy to track down, but might be related how background processes running remove a problem.
e) the sonar setting for using audio exclusive or not and what drivers are installed for windows audio to use mediaplayers and stuff. To troubleshoot I would try altering some of that, may change sonar setting, maybe disable temporarily windows audio things like certain outputs etc. Just part of narrowing down the problem.
 
Hope you get some new ideas what to try....

im not sure I know of any modern day MOBO that does NOT support open GL.
I mean its your choice of course. but you should not have any problems running open GL with onboard graphics.
 
on a side note, I would open my Anti virus control panel and add Sonar.exe to my exclusion list.
it is possible your AV is trying to run a scan on it every time you open it (also add your Graphics driver to that exclusion list as well) by opening Firefox, its possible your AV is using its resources there instead.
 
you also might want to get a look at Task manager while running sonar, look for spikes while the glitch is happening.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Some interesting developments...
 

chuckebaby
on a side note, I would open my Anti virus control panel and add Sonar.exe to my exclusion list.
it is possible your AV is trying to run a scan on it every time you open it (also add your Graphics driver to that exclusion list as well) by opening Firefox, its possible your AV is using its resources there instead.

 
While I've already made it a habit to put my AV (Norton Secutity) in silent mode whenever I work, I decided to give this a shot. I added the main Cakewalk and NVIDIA program folders to the exclusion list, opened up a project, and lo and behold, the stuttering did not occur!... until a system restart, that is. So, I went back into the exclusion list and removed the folders, as that seemed to not be a lasting solution. BUT, it appears that we are getting warmer, because afterward, even with the folders removed from the exclusion list, my project ran smoothly once again (again, until the next restart). Further experimentation seems to show that simply opening Norton, and then the settings window within, causes the unstable behavior to not occur (even after closing Norton), until restarting the computer.
 
If this, coupled with the Firefox/Windows Picture Viewer workarounds, gives another hint to anyone about what may be going on, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
 
 

chuckebaby
im not sure I know of any modern day MOBO that does NOT support open GL.
I mean its your choice of course. but you should not have any problems running open GL with onboard graphics.

 
That's what you might think, but alas, thus was the case. I even confirmed that my onboard GPU did not have support for OpenGL (only DirectX) before getting the new graphics card.
 
I've slowly cobbled together a bit of a Frankenstein's monster with my PC with various upgrades over the years, but its foundation is still that of a 6+ yr old, entry-level Dell. So, what's commonplace among most modern-day equipment is not necessarily so for my... unique setup xP
 

chuckebaby
you also might want to get a look at Task manager while running sonar, look for spikes while the glitch is happening.

 
Nothing has jumped out at me there.
 

lfm
Things that pops into mind:
a) did you check for bios and chipset updates from computer manufacturer?
Various things may be used by grapics drivers now. Buying a computer I always had a couple of those updates the following years at least.

 
BIOS and all comonents are up-to-date.
 

lfm
b) for test only - go to windows performance settings and select optimize for performance, you may looose aero then, but just for troubleshooting if related. Certain grapics acceleration stuff create problems, like background shadow on popupmenus etc, I had that very thing opening a menu and got pops in audio and just turned that off. If related you might get a way with disabling just a simple feature like that and keep the rest of aero.

 
I believe I tried that before, but I just tried it again to be sure, and it causes no change in the behavior.
 

lfm
c) bios settings about share graphics ram or similar - don't remember wording. Something todo with mapping graphics into normal ram space or something. Just change as a test. New card with more memory may inflict on this.

 
I don't think I have those settings in my BIOS. It's pretty basic and outdated, in line with what I told Chuck about my system as a whole.
 

lfm
d) does firefox or other software install dll's in own folder rather than in common files folder. If doing that windows may reuse a dll already open when ff runs, making things go smooth. Process Exlorer can tell you about what dll's are open in every process and what it is dependent on. Long shot, and not easy to track down, but might be related how background processes running remove a problem.

 
Yes, it looks like Firefox has its dll's installed in its own Program Files folder, and not in any common folder. But I don't think I understand how that could make things run smoother...
 

lfm
e) the sonar setting for using audio exclusive or not and what drivers are installed for windows audio to use mediaplayers and stuff. To troubleshoot I would try altering some of that, may change sonar setting, maybe disable temporarily windows audio things like certain outputs etc. Just part of narrowing down the problem.

 
I've already disabled all other audio drivers and given Sonar exclusive control of audio while its open, if that's what you're referring to.

Try completely removing Norton from your system. I've seen it cause no end of system issues. If it does nothing you can always reinstall it.

ampfixer
Try completely removing Norton from your system. I've seen it cause no end of system issues.

I was going to suggest the same thing.  Norton's is nothing but trouble.

I have to agree with John and Promidi. Norton is indeed the worst and most resource pig on this planet earth.
I mean no offense of course. this is probably the Anti virus that came with your Internet provider (Comcast, exc).
so its not your fault.
 
Just a minor suggestion but a switch to this Anti Virus:
https://www.avast.com/download-thank-you.php?product=FAV-ONLINE&locale=en-ww
 
Free Avast Anti Virus.
It's what 80% of us DAW users in the industry use (If using a Hybrid PC = DAW online PC).
It's free and it works, it also uses less than half of the resources of what Norton uses.
 
More often than not the Top 2 AV for DAW users are Avast and Microsoft security essentials.
Norton uses a lot of resources because it checks for every little thing.
I haven't paid for Anti Virus in over 7 years. Been using free Avast since 2008.
I did a paper on it in school (college not high school :-) It was a group project. We found that Avast was the best 3rd party free AV. The tests we did included blocking Malware, Rootkits, EXC.
The only thing it couldn't block was the FBI Virus. but since it was a test, all HD's were reformatted so I didn't need to worry. It was a great project. imagine surfing the net, trying to get a virus .
wouldn't try that on my DAW though.