There was a thread started here by me a while back about Windows 10 upgrade turned my internal audio drivers and sound controller back on! Check in the Device Manager and see if your internal sound card has been re-enabled. If so, dis-able. Do you know how to do that? I'll watch here for a response and if you don't, I will be happy to help.
If you do know how, look under System Devices and dis-able the HD Audio Controller. That will take the internal sound device completely off line, drivers and all. That one step has helped me get my latency down to almost nothing.

 

vladasyn
It been always on, never caused latency or drop outs.

That does not mean you can rule that out as not being the cause of the problem. This is good advice.

Did you by any chance update Nvidia graphics drivers?

I got dropouts about the same time Vladasyn, just out of the blue, the only thing I had done (apart from windows autoupdates) was update to the latest Nvidia drivers 358.50. I never install anything but the display-driver & physx, since I don´t use Nvidia´s HD-audio & 3d-glasses-stuff.
After reverting to the older 355.82-driver it seems like everything´s back to normal & I´m a bit happier again.

I have been having random audio dropout problems with the Sonar message box in lower right-hand corner appearing using Windows 10.  Disabling Windows Defender solved the problem. Disable all three boxes associated with Windows Defender, reboot the computer, ignore the notifications saying that the virus checker is off. Run Sonar and see if random audio engine dropouts no longer occur.
 
My dropout would occur whether the transport was running or not but a song had to be loaded so that the audio engine was running. It didn't matter how big or how complex the song. The dropout would occur on a one track audio song with no effects. 
 

I have heard of one more user who had Windows defender play up and hijack every vst that was loaded by SONAR causing performance problems. I haven't seen this personally but its recommended to add all your plugin scan paths as exclusions to Windows defender or any other AV program you use. I've found AV developers have tunnel vision. Their sole purpose is to prevent viruses on the system but they don't care that much about jeopardizing the performance of the rest of the system to meet their goal!

Yup just updated from zonealarm (because I was prepared to stick with cheap and crappy) to bitdefender (because it's now cheaper and probably the best). Huge difference in performance exclusions are still in of course. Anyway that's in my checklist.

Well- I did not want to go in to Antivirus discussion, but if you mentioned it- I have Norton 360 Prime. It never gave me false positives until the last update when they made it compatable with Win 10. Now it gives me 2-30 false positives on every computer boot, especially Native Instruments. (yes, I already said it). So I set it to do nothing when it find thread, because in the past it would delete what ever it wants. Now it just warns me and I ignore it. I do have my VST folders excluded- I am not sure if it finds it on back up drive or what.
 
How do I disable Windows Defender?
 
Also- how do I back up my preferences? Thanks.

vladasyn
Well- I did not want to go in to Antivirus discussion, but if you mentioned it- I have Norton 360 Prime. It never gave me false positives until the last update when they made it compatable with Win 10. Now it gives me 2-30 false positives on every computer boot, especially Native Instruments. (yes, I already said it). So I set it to do nothing when it find thread, because in the past it would delete what ever it wants. Now it just warns me and I ignore it. I do have my VST folders excluded- I am not sure if it finds it on back up drive or what.

 
It is still running scans all the time and takes up CPU.
Have you actually tried entirely disabling Norton to see if it improves performance? Hiding or doing nothing is not the same as disabling BTW. If it's coming up with false positives all the time it's probably in overdrive BTW,
 

vladasyn 
How do I disable Windows Defender?

 
I just googled "Disable windows defender":
http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5918-windows-defender-turn-off-windows-10-a.html
 

vladasyn 
Also- how do I back up my preferences? Thanks.

If you are talking about AUD.INI you just need to rename it to AUD.INI.BAK - your settings will be backed up.
Please google "delete AUD.INI" for further instructions.
 
Cheers..

Vlada, for whatever the worth, I also have my Native Instruments sample libraries and both Cakewalk Content and Cakewalk Projects excluded from my antivirus software - which happens to be Avast.
 
There can be zillions of files associated with a sample-based instrument, such as a lot of what Kontakt loads, and you can really help speed things up by keeping that whole folder excluded from being scanned every time files are accessed.
 
Your real-time protection is still in place, and those sample libraries are static, so they are not being updated on any kind of regular basis.
 
Bob Bone
 

2 cents, this is a professional DAW for my studio and for any streaming application (After Effects, DAW) ..just disable the antivirus.  I disable the network card and the antivirus, windows 10 has a veritable crapload of services running , most of which have no business on a DAW. updaters for everything. Always disable the local sound card, no matter what brand/model of interface you use with the DAW.  Sorry you cant play youtube videos.  I created a shortcut that enables and reboots if I want to play youtube videos. If I want to play a local file without opening the daw I use audacity or ozone which is set to use the interface, don't let windows touch the interface.
 
I would follow the Doktors orders on the sonar settings and I wish you luck.
 
All these special handling issues are why some companies control the environment so much (Apple etc.)  It is also why Pro Tools has so many restrictions on its environment and hardware. 

Maybe a long shot, but I would suggest checking out a trial of the latest version of System Mechanic for Windows.  I try to keep as much garbage off my DAW computer, as I can, but this actually helped me get more performance out of my Windows 10 system, which dropped my CPU levels in Sonar quite a bit.
 
The latest version of System Mechanic has a couple features called Power Sense, and Live Boost which recognizes certain applications, like Games, Graphic Programs, and even Daws, and turn off certain windows features off and boost other areas, so you get the best performance out of your system while working. They already have a profile included which recognizes Sonar X3, but it doesn't recognize Sonar Platinum yet.  Maybe in the next update.   No problem though, I just created my own user profile in "Ultra Performance Mode".  When you do this, system mechanic gives you a long list of features that you can select to turn off / disable, when you start Sonar.  For example Antivirus, Windows Audio, Networking, ect.  Then every time you start Sonar, it automatically does all this in the background.  In addition to this feature, it does a bunch of other that you may or may not want to use, like Registry Cleaner, Startup Disable, ect.
 
BTW, I have nothing to do with this company, just a user of their program.  Last time I checked, they had a free version (probably less features, and a trial version.  May be worth checking out.  Easy to install and uninstall.