When I tried launching Sonar this morning, it wasn't seeing my sound card drivers.. I double checked everything and the drivers were there and functioning properly.. I did a system restore prior to todays Windows update and now everything works fine.. Just a word of caution!

That's a weird way to wake up - glad you are working now, and thanks for the heads up.
 
Bob Bone

Thanks Bob! That was a head scratcher for a few hours, that's for sure! As a result, I turned automatic updates off and will wait a few days before installing to see if there are any mentions on the forum..  Happy Holidays!

Having been hit with a bad update a week or two ago, I just scrambled to turn off my automatic updates.  I haven't received an update since the 17th.  Maybe Microsoft just hasn't gotten around to me yet for this latest one, but if I get it I'll wait a few days before installing it.
 

I have no issues I'm totally up to date.

With driver issues generally worth updating them to latest if there is a later version.

Otherwise deleting from device manager and redetecting (or rebooting).

If that does not work uninstall/reinstall of latest driver.

Also update to latest firmware.

Generally following this procedure does the trick regardless of what might have triggered it...

Cheers..

Well what a surprise to find others having this issue. I had three windows updates between 27 Dec and 2 Jan and one of them stopped all my VST in their tracks. Midi data seen on the track but no audio and no output from my Focusrite Sapphire 40 either. Focusrite spent two hours with me on the phone trying to sort itout with no success. I tried a demo version of Reaper to see if that worked OK - which it did, all VSTs running OK. Uninstalled X3 and re-installed it three times - still no joy. Eventually did a restore back to 27 Dec and guess what - all back to normal. Bl**dy Microsoft!
 
I now also get a message saying " synoacc.dll file is missing from Windows". Don't understand that, but hasn't so far affected anything on my DAW.
 

I also found Sonar's Preferences oddly setup recently for my audio device.
Took a bit of time to route that out....So windows is making mess-ups again eh....thanks!
 
I found my outputs changed to a secondary 1/2 output...on a second desk of A & H I just got installed recently.
I did not put that selection in....as I use the Primary desk to play back to my monitors, and sending to stereo amp/ and do edits with headphones....So to find the reason why it was not playing back audio was a bit of a challenge.
And I had not turned on the second unit to see if it was working...
 
I did find the output going to the second units 1/2 outputs...and when changed back to the first units outs...all was ok.
 
In that there after, I had lots of problems with visuals of the Mixer channels..not seeing the end on the right, it was cut off, and I could not get the sliders to show busses, or output metering.
Took forever to find the view that shows this feature....and it seemed, that the mixer was not pegged properly...to size the mixer window.
Then the left app that shows track effects disappeared....Just like that, it was gone...
And I had to get that sorted out...
Then another odd thing....I had 32 tracks showing , and then I only had one track...track number 9...and it was the only track....
 
So, what was causing all this confusion?....and oddly unknown controller making changes to my setups?...ah mysteries abound when MS is doing updates......
 
Like I said in past postings....Sometimes updating can cause Issues to arise.....eh?

I too had this blue screen issue that might have been related to a bad update. I had to "refresh" Windows and it fixed the problem. I've been away so I'm not finished re installing everything yet. I'm making re store points as I go along and hopefully no more blue screens on start up. 
It seems to have finished with updates but I bet there was a buggy one they removed. 
Bottom line is always set restore points before updating. 

Yah some of those MS updates do the restore thingy before updating....but not all do.
I manually update, so it is my fault.....wink.

Oh, Yah I recall last week or so, doing something on the net, and then the screen went blue, a window saying windows needs to install important updates....So I closed down the internet, and restarted the system, as I have manual updates selected, I thought this may be a virus attack....even with Trend Micro running.
When it restarted, something tried to tell me in a nice little window on a blue screen, Windows is ready to install updates....ok and cancel were my choices...I selected cancel, and another window opened, did the same, and another window, did the same, and another, and another...I cancelled about 34 or so of those before I got to my boot log in window...This is not normal procedure, so cancelling those installs must of did me good.
 
I then went to the update site for MS, and saw the failures to install history...Yep there we about 34 of em.
And did the updates manually....Stupid me.