I posted this on hardware a bit earlier today.  I also want to note that after the audio engine stopped message I get an unable to open audio device message when I hit play.  when I hit play again it plays. 
 
I finally built my new system   I am little disappointed so far.  I know I need to tweak it more but I have had the audio engine
stop on me a bunch of times.  I am using a vantec firewire card with a TI chipset.   the mackie blackbird control has a dpc checker.  It recommends that I run it safe mode 2!!!   Using a buffer size of 128 and running it in lowest latency mode seems to trigger the problem.  
    I have done some tweaking to my system.  I used this as my guideline.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P
With blackbird control set at 128 and lowest latency I was doing a simple one track stereo recording, no plug ins, the audio engine stopped several times.  I had to set the blackbird to normal and buffer to 256.  sonar platinum reports roudtrip latency at 13.2 ms with those settings.  Shouldn't I be able to get it much faster than that?!!

Have you run Resplendence LatencyMon? When building a new machine, you need to watch all processes on the computer like a hawk. So many processes can be set to "Manual" or even "Disabled" (if truly garbage), and one I found particularly upsetting is "AutoDetect" functionality of Wi-Fi (every 4 seconds). Another issue with this is the priority setting, as many can be lowered below "Normal" without issues. When running low latencies, the audio engine must have a consistent data stream going - if the system has some BS utility set at "high priority" it can cause enough of a hiccup to shut the audio engine down.
 
Another thing to check is msconfig.exe and "Hide all MS processes" and allow only software and hardware required on boot (rest can always be run manually, but some will change the registry to auto-boot from simply running them, so need to monitor this at times).

HighAndDry
 It recommends that I run it safe mode 2!!!  

For tests or actual recording? Either way I really don't understand that at all.

It means that is how it recommends I run it for everything. Blackbird control is the mackie firewire driver. It has it's own dpc checker and it makes a recommended mode based on what it finds.

"Have you run Resplendence LatencyMon? "
Is that a built in windows program? or something else?  I will google it
Thanks so much for your input!

HighAndDry
It means that is how it recommends I run it for everything. Blackbird control is the mackie firewire driver. It has it's own dpc checker and it makes a recommended mode based on what it finds.

I can't possibly believe this. Maybe for testing.

EDIT ... You do mean windows safe mode? Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

Ok.  I found Resplendence LatencyMon and ran it.  I don't know how to interpret it.  It does say that my computer appears to be suitable for real time audio and other tasks without dropouts.

Dpc latency or disk contention are probably your issue.

If it is a problem after recording for a while then hitting stop, then it might be that your virus scanner is scanning the new sound files for viruses.

Especially if it goes away after a bit.

If it is Persistent, perhaps dpc. Try latency Mon as suggested and post the results.

Doktor Avalanche

HighAndDry
It means that is how it recommends I run it for everything. Blackbird control is the mackie firewire driver. It has it's own dpc checker and it makes a recommended mode based on what it finds.

I can't possibly believe this. Maybe for testing.

EDIT ... You do mean windows safe mode? Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

No.  Not windows safe mode.  It is referring to operation modes of the firewire driver selectable in blackbird control. they are safe mode 2, safe mode 1, normal, and lowest latency.  It also has buffer settings from 2048 to 32.  right now I am running it at 256 buffer setting and normal mode.

_This was the result after disabling my Ethernet driver and turning Norton off! It ran for 26 minutes.
Before with those on it ran for 5 min.  wth?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CONCLUSION _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates. LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for  0:26:26  (h:mm:ss) on all processors.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________ SYSTEM INFORMATION _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Computer name:                                        STUDIO OS version:                                           Windows 8.1 , 6.2, build: 9200 (x64) Hardware:                                             Z97X-Gaming 7, Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. CPU:                                                  GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz Logical processors:                                   8 Processor groups:                                     1 RAM:                                                  16229 MB total
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU SPEED _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Reported CPU speed:                                   3991 MHz Measured CPU speed:                                   1 MHz (approx.)
Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.
WARNING: the CPU speed that was measured is only a fraction of the CPU speed reported. Your CPUs may be throttled back due to variable speed settings and thermal issues. It is suggested that you run a utility which reports your actual CPU frequency and temperature.
 
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________ MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.
Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   8292.823740 Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   2.326322
Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       8291.284183 Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       0.823292
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________  REPORTED ISRs _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.
Highest ISR routine execution time (µs):              262.259334 Driver with highest ISR routine execution time:       HDAudBus.sys - High Definition Audio Bus Driver, Microsoft Corporation
Highest reported total ISR routine time (%):          0.046250 Driver with highest ISR total time:                   Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation
Total time spent in ISRs (%)                          0.047021
ISR count (execution time <250 µs):                   1905695 ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0 ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs):                6 ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0 ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0 ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________ REPORTED DPCs _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.
Highest DPC routine execution time (µs):              7509.506389 Driver with highest DPC routine execution time:       Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation
Highest reported total DPC routine time (%):          0.227216 Driver with highest DPC total execution time:         Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation
Total time spent in DPCs (%)                          0.313897
DPC count (execution time <250 µs):                   7603433 DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0 DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs):                290 DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              29 DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              13 DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________  REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.
NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.
Process with highest pagefault count:                 svchost.exe
Total number of hard pagefaults                       432 Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:          327 Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs):          22111.979704 Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%):              0.000597 Number of processes hit:                              8
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________  PER CPU DATA _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       49.094776 CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs):                262.259334 CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s):                   5.967353 CPU 0 ISR count:                                      1905701 CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs):                7509.506389 CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s):                   39.656055 CPU 0 DPC count:                                      7507684 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0.329031 CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0.0 CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.0 CPU 1 ISR count:                                      0 CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs):                9.97770 CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.001151 CPU 1 DPC count:                                      1604 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0.750946 CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0.0 CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.0 CPU 2 ISR count:                                      0 CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs):                49.590078 CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.142975 CPU 2 DPC count:                                      64839 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0.313332 CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0.0 CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.0 CPU 3 ISR count:                                      0 CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs):                5.282636 CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.001641 CPU 3 DPC count:                                      2452 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0.339373 CPU 4 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0.0 CPU 4 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.0 CPU 4 ISR count:                                      0 CPU 4 DPC highest execution time (µs):                5.180907 CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.002732 CPU 4 DPC count:                                      4012 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0.301646 CPU 5 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0.0 CPU 5 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.0 CPU 5 ISR count:                                      0 CPU 5 DPC highest execution time (µs):                11.308695 CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.002418 CPU 5 DPC count:                                      2967 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0.404947 CPU 6 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0.0 CPU 6 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.0 CPU 6 ISR count:                                      0 CPU 6 DPC highest execution time (µs):                32.863192 CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.027974 CPU 6 DPC count:                                      18757 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0.549506 CPU 7 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0.0 CPU 7 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.0 CPU 7 ISR count:                                      0 CPU 7 DPC highest execution time (µs):                5.666750 CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.000973 CPU 7 DPC count:                                      1457 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________