I don't know if it's windows updates or sonar, but in the last week I haven't been able to record without my audio completely crapping out. I'm working on a project where I have ALL FX bypassed and audio still completely bites it when I try to record. I'm using the newest BETA drivers (which have been working great up until this week.) I've managed to record very well and have a pretty big project on the go, suddenly it's totally failing on me. Maybe I'm missing something but with FX completely bypassed what could really be causing this issue?

What do you mean by "audio crapping out"?  Dropouts?  In any case, something may have changed with a recent O.S. update.
 
Run LatencyMon as explained here:
 
https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/solving-dpc-latency-issues/
 
Also, try the 2i4 with a different USB port (USB2 first).

I just mean that the audio gets crackly and out of sync when I try to record anything. It's driving me nuts because it was all working fine a week ago, even with FX enabled.

LatencyMon says everything is OK.

I realize that the Audio and MIDI components of the driver are recognized separately in windows, but I don't get why the device shows up in so many ways. This just makes things all the more confusing.



I also seem to have a residual part of a driver (although, I think windows just thinks I do) that no matter what I do I can't get rid of:

When I try to uninstall this a window pops open, which to me would indicate the uninstaller doesn't exist:


I'm pulling my hair out. I only have so much time in the week to work on music.

 
Did you try a different USB port?  That might reinstall the driver for you.
 
When uninstalling, unplug the unit first.  From the error message, it does seem like you have some driver corruption. 
 
You can do a dirty uninstall (Delete the software folders, then delete the registry entries - the latter either manually or with a utility like JVPowertools or CCleaner).  Depending on the utility, some will handle all of these tasks so you don't have to hunt and delete anything yourself.

Hi,
 
I have a  1st Gen Scarlett 2i2 and had the same problem with the old driver hanging around on the installed programs list - it was not possible to uninstall. I solved that problem by just downloading that driver version from the Focusrite site and reinstalling it. After a successful install I managed to uninstall it properly. After that I recall uninstalling all other Focusrite drivers as well and rebooting the PC. Only after that did I install the version I intended to use.
 
The newest BETA drivers (version 4.x) for 1st Gen Scarletts don't really seem to work with Windows 10 (I have "Creator's Update" installed) and I had to resort using version 3.2.2.292 BETA of the driver, which seems to work ok. There were problems especially with bridged 32-bit plugins that I still (have to) use: the constant audio dropouts made it impossible to use them.
 
Hope this helps you even a little!
 
     -Pete
 
 

Yes it looks like your computer is thinking there are more than one and this must be there is 2 or more drivers installed. Moving USB ports can cause this to happen but it might be W10 updates too.   You install the correct driver from the Web site and if you move ports or during the next update Windows will re install a generic driver. This is a well documented flaw of Windows 10 now taking over proper driver management. It did this to my Video card. It took me a few hours to straighten it all out after reading on forums etc. I have since unplugged my DAW from the internet and will be very careful what updates when I plug it in again. 
Of course I don't have any issues with my W7 DAW :) It's always on line. 

Thanks guys, I'll look into this later.
Definitely re-installing and then uninstalling the flaky remnant driver makes sense.

No, Uninstall everything that is Focusrite first, Then install the correct driver. 

Cactus Music
No, Uninstall everything that is Focusrite first, Then install the correct driver. 

But the old driver here won't uninstall, because the installation information is corrupted or something. Reinstalling will make it uninstallable again.   That's what I did, and it went well, without registry hackery or such.
 
    -Pete

Exactly