You forgot one, Craig... possible eminent hard drive failure.... I had this issue last year, then the drive went kaput, changed it and all's gravy... really sucked as it was my C drive which I hadn't backed up for awhile...a Samsung ssd to boot!

Vastman
You forgot one, Craig... possible eminent hard drive failure.... I had this issue last year, then the drive went kaput, changed it and all's gravy... really sucked as it was my C drive which I hadn't backed up for awhile...a Samsung ssd to boot!

Like I had said a few posts earlier ... time to create/update that disk image (I was sloppy on the image backup and paid for it) ...

Hmm... It could be that Windows 10 "update". It is reported to pre-download the whole image of several Gb big, even if you did not opt-in for the upgrade. This seems to happen if you have automatic updates enabled. It could be that the associated disc/network activity is the cause of that drop-outs.
 
You can see if that is the case if there is an (hidden) directory on your hard drive named: $Windows.~BT. This directory contains the Windows 10 installation files and is between 3.5Gb and 6Gb in size.
 
If you have disabled automatic updates then there must be another reason for that drop-outs.

Well, I have more analytical work to do, on figuring out what is happening, but I have been working through it.
 
I found that there is a diagnostic mode on the UI for my Native-Instruments Kore 1 audio interface that I have been testing with, and is is showing repeating USB Data Errors, about 1 every 40 seconds, when the interface is being used by any Sonar project - either in X3 or Platinum.
 
I changed USB cables, and it made no difference, and changing to a different USB 2.0 port made no difference either.
 
So, I will try using a Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 and see what happens there.
 
Thanks to all for helping - I am pretty sure we'll get this figured out.
 
Bob Bone
 

robert_e_bone
 
I found that there is a diagnostic mode on the UI for my Native-Instruments Kore 1 audio interface that I have been testing with, and is is showing repeating USB Data Errors, about 1 every 40 seconds, when the interface is being used by any Sonar project - either in X3 or Platinum.
 

This is sort of good news. Anything periodic can be tracked down. I would start with scheduled tasks and network activity, but also consider exotic causes. You could even be filling up some (other) buffer that's not apparent - like I remember crashing my digi mixer every 58 seconds until I figured it's a MIDI loop that silently fills the buffer until the whole unit decides to say good-bye ... always thought this was a USB problem ...
BTW, how stable is your power supply? Are you and your gang opening the fridge every 40 seconds for cold brew???

Try...

Latest firmware on audio interface if needed.
Then uninstall drivers reboot and reinstalling them (obviously use the latest).
Then try and do a full reset of your hardware if the settings get saved to it, and set it up again.

Go to intel driver update for latest chipset drivers. Get a Motherboard BIOS update as well.

Maybe there are firmware updates for your hard drives.

Have you tried disabling your virus scanner. Some third party firewall software could get in the way of USB as well.

Defrag.

robert_e_bone
Well, I have more analytical work to do, on figuring out what is happening, but I have been working through it.
 
I found that there is a diagnostic mode on the UI for my Native-Instruments Kore 1 audio interface that I have been testing with, and is is showing repeating USB Data Errors, about 1 every 40 seconds, when the interface is being used by any Sonar project - either in X3 or Platinum.
 
I changed USB cables, and it made no difference, and changing to a different USB 2.0 port made no difference either.
 
So, I will try using a Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 and see what happens there.
 
Thanks to all for helping - I am pretty sure we'll get this figured out.
 
Bob Bone
 

What video cards are you using for each of the systems? 

I ask because I was getting pretty consistent drop outs on my FX-8350, 16GB, 2 SSD's, 1 HHD, M-Audio R-Bus rig after upgrading to a EVGA 760 GTX. LatencyMon indicated that the Nvidia driver was causing some interrupts in streaming. Performance was okay for very light projects, but anything more complicated dropped out constantly.
 
I had to switch the video card from Line-Based to Managed Signal-Based interrupt. This thread goes into it in more detail: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=378044
 
Make sure you're not getting any faults with LacenyMon first: http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
This was the utility I used: http://www.mediafire.com/download/hrxw4rsb9xnw1ei/MSI_util.zip

 
Make sure you have a backup to roll back to! In my case I didn't experience any issues switching all of my devices to MSI, though I know other users have experienced instant blue screens on the switch. 

Seth Kellogg [Cakewalk]
What video cards are you using for each of the systems? 

I ask because I was getting pretty consistent drop outs on my FX-8350, 16GB, 2 SSD's, 1 HHD, M-Audio R-Bus rig after upgrading to a EVGA 760 GTX. LatencyMon indicated that the Nvidia driver was causing some interrupts in streaming. Performance was okay for very light projects, but anything more complicated dropped out constantly.
 
I had to switch the video card from Line-Based to Managed Signal-Based interrupt.

Nice. I will add this as well to the equation, although it's just a performance tweak (apt for some and not apt for others):
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=3237094

OK, well I have been making progress with all of this, though am not finished analyzing and testing methods of elimination of audio dropouts in a specific project.
 
This block of testing has been being done with the Native-Instruments Kore 1 Audio Interface, 
With regard to this project, and results of running with the Native-Instruments Kore 1 Audio Interface, I found a regular repeating number of ASIO Data Errors show on the Kore 1 Audio Interface, whenever the interface was connected to the computer, and ANY Sonar X3 or Sonar Platinum project was loaded.  Please note that these reported ASIO DATA ERRORS were still being capture and reported by the Kore 1 audio interface - even if the project in Sonar was NOT playing.  And this situation occurred whether or not it was X3e x64 or Platinum Ipswich x64.  Swapping out the USB cable for a brand new one made no difference, and swapping out the current USB 2.0 port for another USB  2.0 port also made no difference  and the Native Instruments Kore 1 Audio Interface reported ASIO Data Errors appeared with regularity still - even though the Sonar project(s) were not playing, simply loladed into Sonar Xe3 x64 or Sonar Platinum Ipswich x64).
 
Note: With the Native Instruments Kore 1 Audio Interface connected through USB 2.0 port to the computer and selected as the audio interface with ASIO driver Mode and Sample Rate of 48000 and 24-bit Recording Bit-Depth, to a brand new Sonar project from the Normal Template, the Diagnostics Tab on the Kore 1 interface began showing a small number of ASIO Data Errors, then a few seconds 2, then after some more time 3 3, and after a little - 4, etc after around 10-20 seconds it would add another.   Swapping out for a brand new USB cable made no difference - it would still continue to aggregate these errors, so they were still being produced.
 
So, I am about to suck down a couple of quite large cups of coffee, and will continue to test and document here, the same sort of testing to be performed in the same manner, with the exception that the Native Instruments Kor1 Audio Interface will be swapped out for a FocusRite Scarlet 2i2 USB 2.0 Audio Interface, and the same testing will be done again.
 
I will include testing results from the swapped out interface in an additional post to this thread.
 
Bob Bone
 

I cannot thank you guys enough for jumping in and helping - these are some TRULY non-normal kinds of errors.
 
Bob Bone