Hello,
 
This is my first post in Cakewalk forum. I'm glad to be here since I'm a Cakewalk/Sonar user/lover from a long time, more than 15 years.
 
I have the following problem: I experience dropouts while trying to record at 24bit/48kHz on Sonar X3 Producer. Sonar's performance module shows very low usage of CPU, memory and disk. I don't understand the reasons.
 
I use a Fast Track Ultra 8R (Asio), tried a lot of different buffer sizes, and changing a lot of different configurations, but the problem doesn't solve! 
 
My computer is and Intel i3, 8GB RAM, SSD Kingston disk 240GB. Windows 7 Professional 64bit.
It's an HP Notebook G42 440BR, USB 2.0.
 
Dropouts occurs even if I record only two tracks.
 
I used to setup my computer at 16bit/44kHz and it worked fine, dropouts occurred but not often. But I want to record at a better quality.
 
Since my computer doesn't get charged with 24/48, why are these dropouts occuring?
 
Can someone help me?
 
Thank you,
Raff

Disable your wi-fi card.
 

As gustabo posted, it may be due to some driver latency issue.
You can run LatencyMOn to see who is the culprit.
Let it run for a while and then look over the driver cpu loads.
 

As noted above, your laptop's Wi-Fi adapter/drivers may well be spiking DPC latency, which will cause all kinds of dropouts and such.
 
Lots of folks with laptops will either use a hardware switch on the laptop chassis somewhere, or a Function Key, if available, to turn off the Wi-Fi adapter just prior to launching Sonar.  If a switch or function key are not available on your laptop, go into Windows Device Manager again just prior to launching Sonar - and Disable the adapter there.  Then, launch Sonar and you shouldn't see those DPC latency spikes from the adapter any more.  Then, when you are done with your Sonar session and close it, go back and either turn on or enable the adapter again, to regain access to the internet.
 
Hope that helps - this is a common issue, and I wish it would get posted in a forum sticky for folks to find.  (if it isn't already) :)
 
Bob Bone
 

Take a look at TASK MANAGER, CPU usage while recording and see if you can see SPIKES there?  As mentioned, perhaps there are other tasks running you can turn off (if not just during recording).
 
Jim
 

Wireless mice and keyboards are also known culprits here. 
 
Glen

As others have said, checking for deferred procedure call latency would be my first stop.
 
Also, Go to your power options and if you don't see a "High Performance" option, choose to create a new power plan and start off with "High Performance".  Either that or modify your current power plan - go into advanced power settings and make sure your minimum and maximum processor settings are at 100%.  Otherwise, your PC will throttle the CPU when it doesn't think you need full power, and this creates dropouts.

+1 to BRuys. I have identical problems when I forget to switch my laptop out of power saving mode. I created a high performance plan specifically for music that prevents CPU cycling and HDD spin down etc.