The drivers are MME 32bit

 
This is the oldest, slowest driver mode. You should use WDM at least, or ASIO for the M-Audio. Check the pertinent web sites for driver updates, especially those written for V-64.

The Bose L1 is not a sound card, it is a PA system, and has to be connected to a sound card. You still have to correctly setup the sound card for output. You are still using the built in card to feed the BOse the audio signal. I suggest getting a decent card for the laptop and setting up the proper drivers. Do the research Beag suggested and get a card that has 64 bit drivers for vista. MC5 should be fine as long as the sound card drivers are right. 

Greg- The Maudio is not on this computer, it's on my other one, so Asio drives don't appear to work on the laptop. I DID try the MDM as well. Same problems. The MME I was able to get about 5 minutes out of it. The others, about 2.

Robo- Not so. The L1 uses a Tonematch module, which is a bit like a small mixer. You hook it up to your pc using a USB cable and then your system recognizes it as the sound card. Much like a Line6 Toneport for guitar is recognized by the system when you plug that in. It uses both as a sound card. This allows you to record your shows off the Bose system straight from the PA. It's actually very cool, WHEN IT WORKS.

My point with the original title of the thread is- If Audacity (a FREE) software can record with no bumps, no extra soundcard, etc., why does the software that costs 45.00 (MC5) and even hundreds of dollars (Sonar) have such a difficult time just recording for more than 5 minutes? I would think it'd be pretty close to plug and play.  I'd rather not have to purchase yet another piece of gear just to record. Maybe there's other software that's a bit more resource friendly, but I LIKE Cake stuff. It's the most intuitive out there for my money.

cakewalk is a much more complicated program than audacity.  audacity is actually a wave editor where cakewalk is a sequencer.  those actaully are very different things.

you need to see if your L1 Tonematch module has ASIO drivers available from their website.  download the latest drivers from their website, install them and then try switching to ASIO.  if that doesn't work, switch to WDM, then you'll need to go and manually make sure that only the tonematch system is listed as the INPUT and OUTPUT DRIVERS and that it's the only thing listed as the RECORDING and PLAYBACK TIMING MASTERS - it's very possible in WDM or MME driver modes that your onboard soundcard is actually being used as a timing master.

Ugh, tried to quote this thread and it got bunged up-

BEAGLE:  cakewalk is a much more complicated program than audacity.  audacity is actually a wave editor where cakewalk is a sequencer.  those actaully are very different things.

BW- I totally realize this and I use those Cake's midi capabilities any time I come up with a tune that requires keys, drums, etc. I guess it seems that if you're not using those particular capabilities, then recording audio shouldn't be a big deal.

BEAGLE: you need to see if your L1 Tonematch module has ASIO drivers available from their website.  download the latest drivers from their website, install them and then try switching to ASIO.  if that doesn't work, switch to WDM, then you'll need to go and manually make sure that only the tonematch system is listed as the INPUT and OUTPUT DRIVERS and that it's the only thing listed as the RECORDING and PLAYBACK TIMING MASTERS - it's very possible in WDM or MME driver modes that your onboard soundcard is actually being used as a timing master.

BW: I would bet that they do not. When you connect the Bose to the laptop, then fire up MC (or Sonar), you go to Audio Options and then pull it down in the driver list. I was doing this as I know from the Maudio dilemma I had  a year ago that you can't miss that step.  Everything seems to be set right with the possible exception of Asio vs. MDM vs. Two Tin Cans and a String.  The Bose outputs at 24 Bit/48K, so that also has to be set. The other Audacity thing is that Aud will run fine using the Bose drivers. No Asio needed or anything, so that makes me think that maybe Cake just has way too much going on in the background to handle it. Maybe I just should use Aud for audio recording- I just don't want to because I like the Cake interface AND it's midi capabilities.

If no ASIO drivers are available from BOSE- what would the next step be?

There ARE a few topics on the BOSE forum and people had similar problems. Between this forum and that, maybe I'll find a solution.

Audacity is as beag said a simple wave editor, it does not need to use the fancy driver modes, but sort of embeds itself into windows and uses whatever it uses.

Most likely what you are experiencing is that Bose does not heve a very good driver set for the newer computers (64 bit) and all. One thing  to consider is that you have had issues from the getgo, and it might be some small misunderstanding on your part, in the setup. I don't mention this to pick on you, but to get you thinking on what it is that you are missing that we can't see.

There seems to be a general struggle with MC5 and for that matter all cakewalk stuff right now with 64 bit. not so much cake itself, but in the plugins and synths. Everyone point you to ASIO, but one thing to consider is that Cake was designed to use WDM as default, and many have found it likes that driver the best. Not all ASIO drivers are equal, as they are third party, where WDM is a windows driver.

Lastly when you upgrade you need to go do a lot of research, Toshiba laptops have a long history of struggling as DAWs. First it had to do with the fact they installed older slower hard drives (4200 rpm) , lately Both Toshiba, and Dell, and even a few more are guilty of placing too many things on one IRQ address, specifically the video drivers. This causes conflicts. I can't say for sure, but it might contribute. Lastly most laptops come today, and desktops for that matter, with far too much crap installed on the drive, and most of this crap is embedded so that it constantly asks for inflrmation causing interrupts in the process.

Thanks Robo. Good to know. I'm AMAZED at how much knowledge is necessary just to make music. That stuff about Toshiba, I didn't realize, thanks. I also tried your advice a while back which, unfortunately, didn't work for me.

I've had probs with MC5 on both my XP desktop and now my Toshiba Vista laptop. MC3 seemed to work great after I got the latency problems solved. I guess I could just use that, but it's always nice to have the latest and greatest.

I should know this, but forget, ugh....

Asio4All- wouldn't that possibly be the ticket to fixing this?