Pops, Clicks, and Skips on EVERY Buffer Size During Playback

Hey guys,
 
I am exerpiencing pops, clicks, and skips during playback no matter what ASIO buffer size I am on.  There are times when I open Sonar and it plays flawlessly, but more times than not I am experiencing these awful playback issues.  When this is going on the CPU meter is spiking irratically all over the place.  I have tired researching other posts before posting my own because I know pops and clicks are a common issue, but I have not found a solution for someone who is experiencing this on every buffer size. 
 
Here is my setup:
 
Mackie Onyx 1620 with Firewire
Asus M4A79XTD EVO motherboard
AMD Phenom II x4 Black Edition processor
Windows 7 64bit OS
Sonar 8.5 Producer
 
Any and all help is very much appreciated guys.  Thanks in advance!
 
 -Jon

Check all your cables and connections. Had same problem and it was a faulty cable.
John

Chappel


I'd say the first thing to check is that you have the correct drivers installed for your Audio Interface. What sample rate is the project in?

Hey Chappel thanks for the reply.  I am always updating my drivers so that shouldn't be the issue.  My projects are at 44.1kHz.
 
 -Jon

DonM


Did Sonar ever perform properly?  If so what changed - Including possible updates to OS or other apps.  Do you have another audio app on your system?  I always have Reaper or PT installed to isolate issues such as this.

-D

Hey DonM, thanks for the reply.  I had 8.5 running on the build I had before this, Win XP 64bit.  It definitely wasn't the most stable system - had dropouts and clicks and pops, but I will say the clicks, pops, and skipping seems to be a lot more irratic and frequent now.  I wonder if there are any settings within Win7 that are conflicting with Sonar.  To answer your last question, no unfortunately I only have Sonar on my computer.  Thanks again for helping!
 
 -Jon

chuckebaby


if it wasrunning fine and now all of sudden its not and you find yourself running out of solutions try a system restore..what have you got to lose?..its not a solution to your problem might it might give some insight as to what your problem is..could be auto matic update from some other program.windows?..another software on you computer?...could be just a driver..try uninstalling your audio interface drivers then re install

Hey Charlie thanks for your time.  Unfortunately a system restore wouldn't be of help because ever since I built this computer and did a fresh install of Win7 this problem surfaced.  I have tried uninstalling/reinstalling my interface drivers before but I'll try again.  Thanks again...
 
 -Jon

two possibilities: 
 
1. Disable HPET (High Precision Event Timer) in the system's bios. This setting affects Win7 but not XP - could explain the decrease in performance.


2. If your mobo doesn't have a genuine TI firewire chipset, you could try getting an expansion card that does. A lot times this is the issue and this would affect XP and Win7.

One other thought. Cakewalk is pretty "in-bed" with Intel, taking as much advantage of on-chip functionality as possible. Because of this, you're really better off with an Intel CPU for DAW usage.

-Dan 

PS: Chappel is correct - get the DPC Latency checker and let us know the readings.