Hi, thank you for your assistance!
 
I'm getting continual dropouts (best is every 2 mins) while recording audio. How can cease the audio dropouts (for at least an 8 mins record)?
 
My Windows Event Viewer/Application error message is: "Faulting application sonarpdr.exe, version 14.2.0.228, faulting module sonarpdr.exe, version 14.2.0.228, fault address 0x004fe3a5."
Corresponds to when Sonar CPU % display rapidly peaks (over 90 or 100%).
 
I typically record an audio clip from internet, out PC StereoJack to Presonus Ch1&2 (or mic to Ch1), record in Sonar5 audio track.
 
What I done so far:
Defrag Disk Drive before every use.
Close & Startup-disable every program I can.
Using recommended FireWire Card.
Everything updated except Sonar5 (don't know if there's anything appropriate to update).
 
I have:
Sonar 5 Producer Edition 5.2 (2001-2005) (never updated)
ASIO4ALL v2.11 (updated drivers/prog)
Presonus Firepod WDM 24bit/96k firewire (updated drivers/prog)
FireWire 3-port PCI (updated drivers/prog)
Creative SB X-fi (updated drivers/prog)
Windows XP SP3 32bit, AMD Athlon 64x2 dualcore Processor 4200+, 2.21ghz, RAM: 2GB (updated BIOS)
 
Settings:
ASIO4ALL: Buffer size 2048, Always Resample 44.1k, Force WDM Driver to 16Bit, In/Out: 32Samples, (options 'Hardware Buffer' or 'Kernal buffers: 4')
Sonar5: Sampling Rate: 44100, I/O Buffer Size: 2048k, Enable Read Caching& Enable Write Caching: checked,, Driver Mode: ASIO, Dithering: none, Audio Bit Depth: field greyed out reads '32 bit' but records 16 bit.
 
Thank you for any recommendations: how to fix, or where to go for help.
Greg

First make sure Sonar is actually using your Presonis ASIO drivers when this happens.  
 
Asio4all is only used when there are no drivers available for an audio interface.  Creative drivers too! That  is the second most dreaded sound card with Sonar users. Both are known to take over your ASIO drivers and cause problems. 
I know this personally as I had one and fought with it for 4 years before the good folks on this forum talked me into buying a proper audio interface,,, which you have.
So all you need to do is make sure Sonar is using the  presonus and all will be good,
Eliminate all other drivers and devices from your system to avoid this problem. 
 
The other item might be your firewire card, It seem there are some cards that are not recommended and some are, look into that too. 
 

I see two different problems described: dropouts and crashes. They're very different things.
 
The sudden CPU spike followed by a GPF suggests a faulty plugin. Try bypassing all plugins while you're recording. Unfortunately, the global effects bypass feature wasn't implemented until SONAR 8, so you'll have to go through and disable them one-by-one.
 
 
 
 

Sock Mionkey- thank you for your reply. If I uninstall AIO4ALL and Creative sound card, and just use presonus, how do I do that?
 
If I go into Sonar/Audio Options, ASIO and Creative are the only drivers in the Input & Output Drivers list. There isn't a Presonas driver listed there. I think I must not be understanding something.

Bitfliper- thanks for the advice! Is it correct I go into Tools/Sonar Plugin Manager?
Are you saying I need to disable all the plugins (some 75 of them) one-by-one just while I'm recording?
 
I use some of these plugins, such as Directx Audio Effects: Cakewalk FxEq, Delay, Flange, etc. 
I certainly can disable all the plugins I don't use, that would cut down on the number of plugins I'd have to disable/enable, but that seems a bit tedious.
Is there a plugin in particular that's causing the CPU spike?
Is there some way to determine which one is causing the CPU spike?

bitflipper is suggesting you try temporarily disabling only the particular plugins that are loaded into this particular project - not all the plugins installed on your system.
 
What can sometimes happen is that a plugin can for some reason start having problems, and this can cause all kinds of problems for a project that happens to have it loaded and enabled.
 
In later versions of Sonar, you could hit a single key on your computer keyboard, and 'bypass' all effects loaded into the project, but that functionality was not yet implemented for the version of Sonar you are running.
 
So, he was suggesting you temporarily turn off all effects that are loaded into this project, and see if that makes your problems go away.  If it DOES, than you know that the issues are caused by one or more of these plugins.  It is a bit of a pain to have to do that manually, but it will indeed help determine if the problems are caused by one or more plugins.
 
And, if the problems are still occurring with all of the plugins in the project turned off, then that is also helpful, as you then know something else is the cause of the problems, and the debugging process can focus elsewhere than on the plugins.
 
And, as far as the audio interface drivers go, I would suggest you COMPLETELY uninstall ASIO4ALL from your system, since you have a Presonus audio interface.  ASIO4ALL has caused some problems for people, just by being present on their system - even if it was not actually pointed at by Sonar.
 
I don't know if removing the Creative drivers is needed or not, but in any case, once ASIO4ALL is gone, you could try:
 
Go into the Sonar preferences (or whatever it is called in Sonar 5), and remove any checks for audio devices, then you should be able to change your Driver Mode to ASIO and click Apply, and Sonar should then automatically detect the presence of your Presonus ASIO drivers and add the Presonus to your devices and set your playback and recording timing values and such.
 
I hope that helps, I haven't worked with Sonar 5 for a long while, but conceptually, the above shouldn't be too far off (I hope).
 
If anyone else is more familiar with Sonar 5 and can offer better guidance, please do so, 
 
Bob Bone
 

Please post back after you go through the above and have determined whether or not the plugins are the problem or not, and that will help us continue to work through getting things resolved.
 
Thanks, 
 
Bob Bone
 
 

By the way - Cakewalk is having a sale on X3, for any registered Cakewalk user, with the basic X3 upgrade running at only $19.99 usd.
 
You would need to be on Windows 7 or beyond, but in case you want to grab it for your next computer, here is the link:
 
http://www.store.cakewalk.com/b2cus/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=10-CXSR3.00-30E
 
Any of the X3 versions allow for a 32-bit install and a 64-bit install, but you do have to be on Windows 7 with SP1 or beyond.
 
They also have good upgrade prices for the other X3 flavors too - just look on the main Cakewalk web site home page.
 
Bob Bone
 

So that explains it, Your not using your Presonis drivers so that is why your having problems. I doubt if the Plug ins are involved even though that is another place to look sometimes. 
 
As Bob has stated, you need to completely remove asio4all, You might even have go into regedit which I've heard people do. 
Creative drivers are the same and I had to physically remove the PCI card from my computer to stop the drivers from always taking over Sonar. 
Even after I removed all traces of it that I could find there would be a Creative ASIO splash screen warning every time I started Sonar. I put up with it until I finally re did my OS. 
I put the Creative Audigy card in my office computer and used it fine for Wave lab and watching movies. But it never worked with Sonar..and believe me I tried cause that dang card cost $350 back then. 

What I've done:
I've uninstalled ASIO4ALL, and had to uninstall Creative SB X-fi (because, like Sock said, Sonar wouldn't allow any drivers except Creative, which disabled the use of my PreSonus).
 
Even though I uninstalled every Creative program, Sonar still brings up Creative drivers (just like Sock said).
 
Twice, without any identified cause, Sonar disabled the Presonus drivers, and switched to Creative (after working fine for awhile). So, just like Sock said, I think I'll have to remove my Creative sound card from my PC. I haven't done this yet -- not something I looking forward to.
 
Outcome:
The dropouts have been minimized greatly. There were none for many 5-7 min recordings. But it appears, after I had filled up my project with many recorded clips (placed in an Archive track), the Sonar CPU % display would peak out & a dropout would occur once in 5 min recording.
 
Would I be making too big of an assumption to think the later dropouts were due to some 30 minutes of recorded clips in an open project's Archive file? Or is it possibly my Creative sound card that Sonar still wants to pick up?
 
Regards to Plugins:
When I was getting dropouts (before uninstalling ASIO4ALL/Creative) I'd get dropouts & CPU spikes with the very first recording, when no plugins were used on the project. So, IF a plugin has to be in inserted into a project (such as Insert Effect/Delay on a clip in project) in order for the plugin to cause the dropout/CPU spike/'Faulting-application-sonarpdr.exe' while recording, then the plugins are not the cause.
 
Thank you again for your help! I really appreciate both your help!