New DAW build - audio engine failing with only a single plug-in

I recently assembled a new PC solely for the purpose of making music. I was tired of making music on a PC that had a single core processor and less than a single GB of ram, so with the hope of not having all the limitations and hardships that such a crappy system entailed, I built the best system I could afford. Yet to my absolute HORROR I'm having more trouble with my new PC than the old one.
 
I had hoped and imagined that with this new system I could run several plug-ins concurrently without any hiccups, but the reality is that I'm not even able to run a single plug-in in without the processor maxing out (according to the performance module in SONAR) and the audio system cutting out. Two examples:
 
Example 1) I insert an audio track and then add TH2 as an FX. I start playing my guitar, not even recording, just playing, and suddenly about three to five minutes into playing the the orange bars in the performance module shoot up into the red, the audio starts breaking up, and then finally the audio engine stops or the program crashes or something.
 
Example 2) I insert an Addictive Drums 2 synth track with my nanopad2 plugged in and start playing (again, not recording, just playing) and after a few minutes, again, the audio system starts cutting out and finally stops or crashes if I don't stop playing.
 
I keep this PC offline, except for the unavoidable AD2 downloads, and use this PC strictly for audio recording and nothing else. I've tried different sample rates and buffer sizes with no different results. I've optimized Windows for audio production by following the guide on the Focusrite website. Windows firewall and defender are turned off, and there is no other anti-virus installed. And now I really don't have the slightest idea where I should begin to go about fixing this problem. All drivers should be up-to date. If anyone has any ideas or advice, it would be appreciated. My system specs are below.
 
Windows 8 64bit, Sonar PLATINUM, Focusrite 6i6
i7 4790k, Crucial 16GB RAM (1600mhz 8-8-8-24), Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK MB, Crucial MX100 256GB SDD, WD 1TB 7200RPM HDD, Seagate 1TB 7200RPM HDD, OCZ ModXStream 600w PSU, Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU cooler
 
 
 

Another factor is attempts to build computers for music production often comes down to more than just adding parts. Sometimes parts with great specs on paper do not work well in reality. Audio engine failing is often a latency issue. Something is likely causing a bottleneck of data where whatvis happening with SPLAT is more of a symptom than a cause. Try running latencymon to begin isolating what is causing the problem.http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
 
With a newly built computer it can he anything from bad drivers to components not supported by the motherboard. 

dub disciple, thanks for the link. I will definitely try that and report back with what I find. For what it's worth, I tried to be careful and research all the components of this system before building. I remember the RAM I selected was listed on the Motherboard's website as tested and compatible. As for the other components, I must have read thousands of reviews and message board forums trying to determine if certain parts would work together or be suitable for audio recording.

Craig, thanks for the link. I will try that as well and report back.

Definitely try to avoid USB 3 ports. It's really dumb but many interfaces simply don't work well with them. If you get stuck trying the "free" solutions, next thing I would try is adding a PCI based USB 2 card.

All good points above. So your chipset drivers are definitely up to date I assume.
 
In regards to mix control was it a clean install or an upgrade from a previous version. If an upgrade I would uninstall/reboot and then install the latest version. I am assuming you are using the ASIO driver.
 
Yes please check out Intel Speedsteep and core parking (which is a registry hack).
 
After you've used latency monitor another good tool is this one:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb896645.aspx
 
I would strongly recommend using the LAN port onboard the motherboard rather than USB. You can right click and disable it if necessary you don't need to unplug the cable (it's actually better that way).
 
Last very last thing to try is a separate display adapter if you have one lying around, I much prefer them to internals to be honest.
 
All good advise above esp about USB ports...

I just built an almost identical system and not only that I also use the 6i6. 
 
I kept getting blue screens so followed the typical troubleshooting endless loop of fixes, updates and head scratching. It's running great now once I found the problem. So don't rule out the hardware on a new build. I even bought more memory. 
The cause= Power Supply see below. 
 
Gigabyte Z97X-SOC ATX LGA1150 Z97 DDR3 PCI-E16 PCI-E8 XFIRE
Intel Core i5 I5-4460 Haswell 3.2GHZ Processor LGA1150 6MB Cache 
Patriot Viper 3 8GB 4X4GB PC3-12800 DDR3-1600 10-10-10-27 1.5V  16 Gigs RAM 
Samsung 840 EVO Series MZ-7TE120BW 120GB 2.5in SATA III Internal SSD Single Unit
OS drive - Run the EVO performance restoration app. 
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN  
Cooler Master HAF 912 Combat ATX Mid Tower Case Black 4X5.25 1X3.5 6X3.5INT 4X2.
Cooler Master Extreme 2 Power Plus 725W ATX   
 
I swapped out the Cooler Master for a Sparkle I bought locally and all is good now. Bummer is I returned the faulty power supply and they sent me a new one! I now do not trust Cooler Master so it's sitting on the shelf. It's sort of like my fear of Behringer, once burned you loose me forever.  
 
And for sure run Latency Mon.  a must do to test all new systems. 
For sure disable the pesky Video card audio driver ( I think that's what Craigs link goes too) 
For sure run msconfig and nuke all but micro soft apps ( see check box)  that are set to run on startup. 
SSD drives often have firmware updates that are not covered by Windows update service. 
 
And as a matter of course I plug the 6i6 into the back usb 2.0 ports. USB 3.0 ports are Blue so use the Black USB 2.0 ports as there can be issues with some USB 3 ports. Not all but some. Focusrite fixed the issue with driver 1.8 but I still would avoid USB 3.0. 
 
FYI I run at 44.1 or 48 , 24 bit. and set the buffers at 7-10 ms for most recording and mixing. 
I find below 7 ms with a large project it is unstable. So I use 10ms mostly and never have issues. 
The Scarletts are not stellar at low latency. For that buy an RME. You might have better luck with your i7 processor but finding the sweet spot for your buffers is important. 
 

Built a new system not a lot different from what you have too, and also using a focusrite. Did all the updates for software and hardware and had similiar issues to you. After a lot of frustration and heartache, it turned out to be the USB ports. I was running both 2.0 and 3.0 to the front of the case, and had 2.0 and 3.0 ports on the rear off the motherboard. I noticed it made a difference changing things around between the different ports, but still kept having problems, so ordered a PCI card with 2.0 ports only. I now run the interface from the card, and run all my other usb stuff from the MB ports and havn't had any trouble since. That was through X3 and now Platinum. Hope you get it sorted. I remember the pain.....

Similar problems (now solved, as follows) here, too: along with all the other possible solutions, add this one:  you are accidentally using a 32 bit VST or plugin in a 64 bit system.    Caused very similar symptoms to what you describe.  Search out where vsts are installed, make sure the 64 bits are distinguished from the 32 bits, and delete (or save away in some non-accessed folder) the 32 bit ones where a 64 bit exists.   
 
A whole lot easier to try than re-installing windows, re-installing sonar, updating drivers, etc etc, which was the advice I (and you) received ....

williamcopper
Similar problems (now solved, as follows) here, too: along with all the other possible solutions, add this one:  you are accidentally using a 32 bit VST or plugin in a 64 bit system.    Caused very similar symptoms to what you describe.  Search out where vsts are installed, make sure the 64 bits are distinguished from the 32 bits, and delete (or save away in some non-accessed folder) the 32 bit ones where a 64 bit exists.

It seems very unlikely that the mere existence of 32 bit plugins would cause a system to have playback problems. If you're not using the plugins, they should have no effect.
 
Anyway, I have almost exactly the same setup as the original poster - same interface, OS, CPU, memory - and it's running like a dream. I'd be interested to know which background tasks are running in this situation. And I assume this is happening with the USB network device completely unplugged? (Networking over USB is usually a bad idea for performance, partly because it has to interrupt the CPU so often.)

I would disable turbo boost as a separate action to know whether that is causing the problem, and if it isn't, keep it. You get a huge boost in performance from it.

Thank you everybody for the helpful advice and suggestions. I've already tried a number of things suggested here and I will eventually try more as time permits. I ran Latency Monitor and it came back with some very troubling results which I will include in my next post. With this post I'll try to answer all the questions that have been asked.
 

robert_e_bone
I am not at all sure which tweaks you did to your system - perhaps you could provide a list.

 
The tweaks I've done are the ones recommended here: http://us.focusrite.com/a...for-audio-on-windows-8
 

robert_e_bone Also, I looked up the specs on your motherboard, and it looks like the USB ports on the back panel are combo ports - USB 3/2. IF you are plugged into one of these ports, I wonder if you might have strange behavior, as many/most audio interfaces still seem to be engineered to work best with USB 2.0 ports.

 
My audio interface has always been plugged into one of the USB 2.0 ports. 
 

robert_e_boneAlso, can you please tell me what Driver Mode you run with in Sonar?  WDM? ASIO?

ASIO.

SplatIn regards to mix control was it a clean install or an upgrade from a previous version?

 
It was a clean install.
 

SplatWhat does "crashes" mean can you be more specific?

 
Hmm, now that you ask, I am not even positive that the program has crashed on this computer. I do know that the audio starts breaking up and then the audio engine stops, but I can't remember if the program has ever crashed when this started happening. My memory might be confusing it with my laptop, which has the exact same problem with the sound breaking up and the audio engine stopping, only it locks up and crashes on a regular basis--but that's to be expected because it's an under-powered piece of junk.
 

brundleflyThat could be the whole problem right there. This is a long-discredited tweak:

 
Thanks for that info. I've switched scheduling back to 'Programs'.
 

KylotanAnd I assume this is happening with the USB network device completely unplugged? (Networking over USB is usually a bad idea for performance, partly because it has to interrupt the CPU so often.)

 
Yes, definitely. I only plug it in and connect to the internet when I have to update programs. Whenever I am recording it is unplugged and disconnected.

Page faults sound like memory problems.  I've had very strange problems with a system  that were extremely hard to track down, until I finally ran a memory diagnostic.  It was bad memory, on a brand new machine.

While it is possible that bad memory is a potential issue, that high number of page faults could also be attributed to an antivirus program doing real-time scanning of every file that is accessed. That means, every sample that gets loaded gets scanned. If you haven't installed any AV software, then make sure you have disabled Windows Defender. It is really stupid sometimes. On the other hand, if you have installed AV software, you should try disabling any real-time monitoring, or disable the AV software altogether to see if the problems clear up.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

Ok, I ran MemTest86. My memory passed all tests except for Test 13, the row hammer test. I did some web research and found that it is extremely common for recent DDR3 memory to fail this test. The testing detailed here (http://users.ece.cmu.edu/~omutlu/pub/dram-row-hammer_kim_talk_isca14.pdf) shows that over 80% of all memory tested from three different manufacturers failed this test. Evidently the memory I have isn't perfect but I am not sure that it alone could cause the problems that I am having.
 
After running MemTest86, I ran Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool. It is still running--has been running for about sixteen hours now--but it hasn't turned up any errors as of yet.
 
Here are the results from MemTest86: