Hey all,
Firstly I guess...
My System specs are... old, lol.
Yes, I'm laughing as I type this, but it's no laughing matter when your system finally lets you down.
MSI X-58 Pro-E motherboard SATA2 (yes, you read it right, SATA2 not 3!) USB 2.0
Intel i7 930 2.8GHz OC'd to 3.8
12GB RAM OC'd from 1333 to 1800MHz
AMD Radeon HD7870 OC'd from 1000MHz to 1250
Samsung EVO 850 250GB SSD (Windows 10 Pro)
WD Raptor 1TB HD (storage)
Focusrite 6i6 Scarlett audio interface
Akai MPK261 midi controller
Sonar Platinum
 
Okay, so I'm getting pops and clicks in both playback and record. It's driving me batty.
I tried every configuration of buffering (and suffering) I can, in both the software and the interface. Nothing seems to help. So I just recently overclocked the PC. Id' always wanted to and it seemed like the perfect time since I suspected the transient pops were the result of my machine being too slow in processing the audio.
Well, now the noise just happens faster! LOL! Just kidding... But yes, the staticy, pop noises still continue.
 
Any suggestions? Is it simply time to lay my poor old PC to rest? Go on, tell me, I can take it!
OR, is it still just a matter of settings and system configuration?
Are my specs just too ancient?
What are some examples of PC specs that run Sonar just fine?
Sure, I'd LOVE to build a new box, but I don't have money to waste if it's not what is really needed.
Could it be background Windows processes? I've disabled all but one thing in the Task Manager Startup tab (a mouse driver).
Corrupt registry kind of stuff? I'm brave (fool) enough to venture into the Registry, but I need direction.
Flawed Sonar install?
Flawed user, lol??? I'm so done! What do I do??
 
Thanks!!!

You can see spec of my desktop in my signature... LOL? Yes
 
Do simple test, switch driver from ASIO to WDM/KS. And "not real time" settings. Do you still have pop and clicks then? If yes, try simpler project. If with one audio track everything is normal, but with real project you have pops then yes, you need new PC. If you do not have pops and clicks, it is a good reason to dig deeper and understand what prevent ASIO running in real time (start with f.e. DPC Latency Checker).

Try routing things to more busses then these can be solo and bounced. sata 2 is hard to saturate unless you overload it. My system is far more straightforward than yours.

In fact probably a lot more under specified. Do you play games? If you don't why do you need all that extra power.

My setup comprises of AMD Phenom ii x6 1080t 3.2ghz, 500 gb program, 750gb data and 256gb ssd drive.

Sata 2 for the program drive and 3 for the rest. Focusrite external sound device and I have a bluray writer.

Graphics are Amd 6850 thingy. Changing to a nvidia gtx 1050 silent edition soon as I can.

First, verify that you have actual Focusrite drivers and the correct and latest ones for Win 10.  Win 10 on some updates borks the drivers (installs its own generic ones).  
 
Overclocking is not the answer.  You've got an i7 CPU.  Sata 2 shouldn't be a problem either.  
 
Then look at DPC latency checker and make sure Wifi is off and that your power management settings are not turning off the USB ports.

Windows 10 is a crap mate ;d

 

BassRocket
 
My System specs are... old, lol.
 

Hey Bassrocket,
 
i7 + SATA 2 + SSD + 12GB is well up to spec for most jobs, don't overclock -it's fast enough - OC'ing will just make it more unstable (speed-stability trade-off!). GFX card is fine too - DAWs don't need gaming cards! Windows 10 is good, not crap. 
 
As a comparison, I just upgraded to win 10 creator, all running sweet on an E3 xeon (slower than i7), ssd, 16gb. I have a saffire pro 40 and have needed to use a legacy asio driver but that's for firewire. I also have Adobe creative cloud, boostspeed and other stuff running in the background with no issues whatsoever...!
 
Try these ...

• Don't overclock, put the clock back to normal. Your ram and ssd will more than compensate.
• Listen to dwardzala - get  DPC latency checker here http://www.thesycon.de/eng/latency_check.shtml and check USB power management.
• Use the latest focusrite ASIO driver. 
• Are you using a lot of VST instruments? they will load the processor quickly. If so try to disable them one by one and see if this improves things. Do the same with FX bins. (I see it a lot of VSTi + VST loading with EDM creators across different DAWs on win/mac - I lecture in music production so see a lot of configs).
• Your system may be doing a big update (not the creator version) in the background - that killed 2 laptops on me about 3 weeks ago and they recovered once the upgrade ended!
• Unwanted processes running? Open up resource monitor and check if you have. Turn off superfetch and indexing services - they're not needed. Disable any unwanted apps at startup (go win > rt click > run enter 'msconfig', hide all microsoft processes and disable anything you don't need).
• Uninstall any 3rd party anti virus and use Windows defender.  Do an AV deep clean.
• Check your audio hard drive has plenty of free space. 
• Put power management to at least balanced mode.
• Wifi - disable WLAN AutoConfig in Services. Use Ethernet cable to your router instead.

Hope this helps. Let us know how you're getting on!
 
Best
 
Gary

Just a comment on the Legacy Firewire driver.  This used to be required for almost all firewire devices.  I had a Saffire Pro 40 and when I upgraded to Win 8, I forgot about using the Legacy Driver and surprisingly the Saffire Pro 40 worked fine with the standard driver, later I remembered about the legacy driver and tried it and it made no difference so I went back to the standard windows driver.   I now have an MOTU 896Mk3 Hybrid and I'm using Firewire with Win 10 and my new i7 6700K build.  The PCIe Firewire card (with T.I. Chipset) is also running perfect with the standard driver and the legacy driver is not needed.