I would like to note that while screensaver is on, my PC is still running OK, it always stays awake and never goes into a sleep. I believe only monitors get turned off, that's it.
 
I have USB keyboard, mouse, and wifi card that have NEVER had an issue with screensavers. I don't think my Firewire audio interface has ever had issues too. For example, stand-alone VST plugins I use are fine when screensaver is on, etc.
 
So I really don't understand why Sonar (a) fails to restore after a soft screensaver (not a sleep!) and (b) Sonar devs could not add an option "Prevent screensaver when running".
 
Anyways, this discussion gets rhetorical )
Thank you for your time, appreciated!

-vince-, I'm pretty sure most of us make the investment in Sonar to produce music, do foley work, create samples/loops, compose soundtracks, do sound design etc. If you like to screw around with music production while programming/troubleshooting using VMs then great. Sonar can cater for that to a degree, but please don't try to tell me or anyone else that that is a usual case scenario for Sonar users! Maybe you don't take your music very seriously, but many of us do, and have been for many years and we know that to run a reliable DAW system for producing music takes a whole different approach than for pissing about for the sake of making a few vibes in between running a virtual Linux Server VM and programming ASPX in another VM. I'm sorry mate but you are not a typical user scenario. I'm pretty sure that most of us who produce music and software use different machines for each task! I mean if you are running a VM on your system then you are allocating it 2 or more cores of CPU and GB of memory. How do you expect a serious DAW application to work under such circumstances? I suspect you also have a guitar with three strings on it?
 
Seriously, it is standard practice for all DAWs and video editing software. It's part of the optimisation of a creative workstation.

Yes, my VM use-case is not typical, however the problem of screensaver is typical.
You do not need to have any VM in order to get Sonar corrupted after you play some guitar loops. I do not see why anyone should disable lockscreen on their machine just because some DAW has problems with that. Having Stockholm syndrome is not a solution for everyone.
 
Just admit that there is no real need/reason behind Sonar inability to handle screensavers. You defending a technical issue, a workaround.
 

As I said before, the issue is not unique to Sonar. It is standard practice to disable screen savers and other power saving features in all DAWs, video editors, 3D and other graphics-intensive applications. Sonar is developed for pro-audio use where a computer is normally dedicated to the DAW and where these practices are standard. They do not develop it for the convenience of casual users. So your issue won't be very high up on Cake's to do list.

Hi. I will join in and agree with the advice given.
It is common procedure to turn off screensaver, and turn on other power optimizations when using a DAW. 
It's not by any means SONAR specific. 
All the best.

> It is standard practice to disable screen savers and other power saving 
screensaver has nothing to do with power saving features. E.g. I use it as a lock screen. I want applications to be smart enough to understand if I use station or not. Not a rocket science.
 
> They do not develop it for the convenience of casual users
Sorry, I believe they do. I would say they have a significant share of casual users.
 
> your issue won't be very high up on Cake's to do list.
It appears you are right ) Although having window geometry reset is a fail even for a tiny utility. It's simply not professional. A sloppy programming, if you will.
 
> It's not by any means SONAR specific. 
Could be but I have just tested Guitar Rig 5 and Reaper - they do not have such issues.
 

Maybe you don't quite grasp the needs of a DAW and how they differ from any other PC - or Mac - usage other than maybe serious video/film editing.

Windows is, of course, a multi-tasking system. If there are multiple applications running it allocates resources to each of them. This means there are brief periods when an application is not getting Windows full (or any) attention. The more applications runnign, the less attention each, includiong the DAW, gets.

Now, the thing about DAWs is that they require as near to real-time computer operation as possible. If you have an ASIO driver buffer set to a latency of, say, 10 milliseconds (which is pretty typical for someone monitoring audio through the DAW as it is recorded) that means that if for any reason there is a period longer than 10 milliseconds where that buffer is not being topped up you get audio dropouts, cracking, all sorts of stuff.

Running e.g. wi-fi and a DAW at the same time can in some setups cause big problems because many wi-fi drivers hog cpu/PCI bus time for long enough to allow the ASIO buffer to overflow. That is not Cakewalk's fault, or Ableton's, or Steinberg's. It is down to the wi-fi driver and how the OS interacts with it (Macs don't have a problem running their wi-fi and a DAW, and PCs often have fewer problems using cabled ethernet). There are other drivers that can have the same consequences.

If you let drives go to sleep, then when Sonar needs to access a drive Windows that drive will very often take long enough to fire up that the ASIO buffer overflows = crackling and dropouts. Putting the screen to sleep means that when you wake it there's a bunch of driver and video subsytem activity. Which distracts Windows from keeping up with the DAW.

I can turn the screen off, or let it sleep to blank and recover from it most of the time by the way. But I don't try running multiple VMs or pretty much anything else either at the same time. If you want the maximum possible multi-taskling smoothness while running a DAW go buy a Mac. Seriously. I've an i7 MacBook Pro that has around half the speed of the sig PC and can run Logic Pro and reliably download stuff at the same time. Which that PC can't, especially using wi-fi. So long as I limit the Logic project to very lightweight plugins (no synths or samplers) and very few tracks. I hit the maximum possible cpu usage before having to freeze tracks a long time before the PC does though.

PCs can make great DAWs, but setting a PC up as a DAW is not trivial and they need tuning for it and some consideration of the real-world constraints.

tlw, Yet again I see an attempt to alter the topic. Instead of admitting a problem you prefer to persuade me with "Vince uses Sonar incorrectly because I know a workaround". If pro folks use Sonar on a dedicated machine without wifi interface then I am fine with that. However, I do not understand why some people would not allow me to use Sonar casually.




 
Please understand that the problem has nothing to do with power saving. It has nothing to do with the latency. The low complexity of my Sonar projects and the specs of my station allow me to forget about any latency no matter how I (mis)use Sonar or other apps.
 
The use case: 
1. I have 10 tracks looped in Sonar and I would like to play guitar part. Please don't tell me this is not the use case Sonar was built for )
2. After 5 minutes a lockscreen activates. Please note that no power saving features have been applied.
3. Now I close the lockscreen and return to Windows.
Problem #1: Sonar shows me a popup because it failed to detect the continuous use of itself.
Problem #2: Sonar lost its window geometry, i.e. it was 3800x1100 and now it's 1980x1100.
 
Both problems come from the fact that Sonar cannot properly detect that it is still being used, i.e. a lockscreen was not needed.
 
I believe it's trivial to find out if user is still using Sonar. And I know that breaking window geometry is a bad, BAD thing to do.

-vince-, the lock screen is a power saving mode. It's under power saving in the settings.  You can set the screen to turn off after a while and that should not upset Sonar as it simply cuts signal to the monitor. The problem is that you have it set to lock the computer too. That means that your user account is locked and you are effectively logged out. As Sonar, processes that Sonar requires and hardware drivers that Sonar needs to communicate with are all running as your user account, they get locked too and so communication gets cut off. No one is making excuses for Sonar. It's simply the way Windows works. Less complicated software like browsers that run completely in the box won't have an issue, but stuff like DAWs and video editors that rely on communication with hardware and other software do have a problem. That's why it is standard practice not to use any power saving (including screen locking) while using them.

OP - Remove whatever it is you are afraid of people seeing from your computer.
 
Then you can optimize it correctly for running a DAW and you wont need screen savers/lockscreens.