This is a weird one...
 
For about two years I have had a recurring problem with my RME UFX becoming "disconnected" while using SONAR and sometimes other programs.
 
For background, you have to know that my computer is set up in a large closet near my workstation, and I connect to it through jacks on panels in the wall. One of those connections is the USB cable from my RME. The closet door is usually open unless I am actually tracking. Near the computer is a USB scanner and a couple of USB printers. As you can see from my signature, my hardware should be capable of handling the job.
 
Once in a while I hear a soft "clunk" noise coming from the area of the computer, and a dropout always follows. The "clunk"
 sounds very much like the kind of noise a printer makes when it's getting itself ready to perform. It sounds so much like a printer that one of the first things I did was to replace my USB laser jet (and leave the other printer off except when I'm using it). Following that I have replaced my motherboard (once in an attempt to solve the problem, later to upgrade to my current system). None of that helped. I now leave my printer and scanners disconnected from the computer's USB ports until I want to use them. The noise and the ensuing dropouts still happen.
 
The problem has not been entirely static. Early on, I had to restart my computer every time to get audio back (power cycling the RME doesn't work). These days, it sometimes comes back on its own after a few seconds. When I moved from Win 7 to Win 8.1, I thought the problem was solved, but after a few months it came back.
 
Now, I know of nothing in a computer that will make this kind of noise. (And I'm not exactly clueless about computers; I've put together at least a dozen of them and I've been messing with digital HD recording since the early '90s.) But it appears as if the noise must be coming from the computer somehow. Most of the time, the only other things connected are my mouse/keyboard USB cable, an Ethernet cable, and my three DVI video cables. I recognize that I've got a less than ideal path for my USB connection from the wire to the computer; it goes through a six foot (or so) cable, through a female to female adapter on a plate in the wall, and then through a twelve foot or so cable to the computer. That's longer than the 15 ft. recommended for USB, and I've just ordered a USB to Ethernet adapter so that I can run Ethernet instead of USB for most of the distance. Still, if that's my problem... What the heck is that noise?
 
I'm desperately hoping that someone out there has had a similar experience and solved the problem. I've asked at the RME forum, and the very capable but not very chatty technical guy there said "something's wrong with your computer".
 
Any comments or advice will be much appreciated!

Oh, for what it's worth, I'm now running Win 10 and Gloucester.

Hi. I do not know about the noise (or too much else).
What is your latency settings? Could it be too low, for the length of the USB connection? (I am just guessing)
Have you tried different cables and adapter? Different USB port? Are you using the Ufx in a USB3 port?
Have you tried DPC latency checker tool? http://www.thesycon.de/eng/free_download.shtml
Best of luck.

No idea what the noise is but you should check to see if you have the issue with a single usb cable.  That would be my guess for the issue. I've had the UFX for a few years and run on a couple of desktops and laptops with out any problems.

If you hear a noise and then a dropout my first guess would not be latency etc. I would look at my power supply or hard drive. Seems to me you need to track down that weird noise if nothing else but to eliminate it as the problem. Maybe disconnect all the printers etc and unplug them from the wall. Bye the way, how often does this happen?

Thanks all for the replies.
 
Zargg71, it happens at all kinds of latency settings, even very high ones. I've also had a lot of different cables in there. For a while I was just stringing a fifteen footer through the door and not using my wall plate. I've tried all the USB ports. I've used LatMon, and it's telling me that I am indeed getting some DPC spikes of about 1000 us. The problems aren't related to USB drivers, more to the DirectX Graphics Kernal and my Nvidia driver.
 
karhide, see my reply to Zargg. I love the UFX, and I really liked the FF800 I had before it. I suspect that the RME isn't the source of the problem, as no one on their forum (or anywhere else I can find) has reported similar issues.
 
scottfa, that's a good thought. I'm using a 1000W Corsair supply. As for hard drives, my work files and all my SONAR stuff and plugins are on SSD's. The work files are on a couple of Samsung 500 GB M.2 drives that I have in a RAID 0 array, all the other audio stuff is on a 1 TB Samsung 850 PRO, and my boot drive is a Sandisk 256GB SSD.  I've got some mechanical drives in there too, but I don't seem to be having any problems with them, and it's not clear why a hit to one of them would knock out my UFX. The noise comes and goes so fast I don't have time to investigate.Maybe I'll stick two or three mics in there and try to track it! It's been going on for a couple of years, and it happens maybe once or twice a day. I've been able to do a lot of work thanks to frequent saves, but twice it's let me down when I've tried to record band rehearsals.
 
Thanks again!

I didn't have the clunk sound with it, but my UFX recently misbehaved outputting Digital noise (through the analog outputs) and then one day went silent and wouldn't come back. i tried everything, including a new firewire cable. I had to send mine in for a new Power Supply. No issues since.

I just had to get a new larger power supply for my son's computer, as it was having odd things suddenly become undetectable by Windows.  No issues since doing so.
 
Don't know if that applies to your situation or not, but it might be a consideration.
 
Bob Bone
 

Hi Vanceen. As I am sure you are aware there are not many coponents in a computer that could make a clunking sound - perhaps a fan, a power supply, a mechanical HDD or even the raid enclosure. (I had an esata dual enclosure fail spectacularly and noisily a couple of years back). I too use the RME ufx and its clock is indeed renowned. I have a 5m usb cable on mine and it works flawlessly. Still, given that yours runs through a wall socket, it might be worth testing the UFX on a shorter cable just to rule out both the unit itself and the cable run as the problem.
 
Best of luck finding it - as you say that is a weird one!

Maybe a power surge/sag? Maybe your air conditioner turning on, refrigerator? Still, a " on the edge" power supply could be the problem. Maybe overloading the circuit?
Could you move the computer/rne to a different circuit/breaker just to test it out?
Anyway, seems like it might take a while to fix. Keep us informed!