Weird dropout problem

Sounds like a Power Saving feature in Windows that needs to be adjusted so that it allows the computer to be idle for a longer amount of time.

Are the hard drives "green" with their own power saving features?
How is the audio crashing? Does the the audio engine simply switch off or do you get some error message?
Do you need to reboot or restart Sonar after such a crash or just switch audio engine on?

For a comprehensive system report on your power management settings, try this from a Windows Command Prompt using "run as administrator":
 
C:\Windows\system32>powercfg -energy
Enabling tracing for 60 seconds...
Observing system behavior...
Analyzing trace data...
Analysis complete.

Energy efficiency problems were found. (I have my system set to "High Performance", so these errors get generated and ignored -- the expectation of the test is to find power saving features enabled)

13 Errors
7 Warnings
17 Informational

See C:\Windows\system32\energy-report.html for more details.  (read this file for the results)

 
Reference: https://technet.microsoft...magazine/dd537557.aspx

Rob[atSound-Rehab]
Something much odder than power saving (after 4 mins?) could be causing this ...
 
I once had an unnoticed MIDI loop going that crashed the audio interface by filling up a buffer (happened exactly 0:58 mins after hitting play in every song) and was caused by turning auto-echo of selected MIDI track on; took 2 weeks to track down ...

That's interesting. I do have a bit of a complex midi path going. I use an ancient motor fader cakewalk control surface. So Sonar needs to be able to both talk to it and listen to it which would mean a midi loop issue could be possible.
 
However I don't think that's the problem. Reason being the midi path routes from the control surface through my old Roland controller keyboard before hitting the input of Sonar. And the fluorescent display on the Roland just plays hell with my bass and certain guitar pickups. So if I'm trying to record bass or guitar parts, I have to shut the keyboard off or else I end up with display noise in the track. No power to the keyboard = no midi thru.
 

A little more testing + info would be helpful to give more suggestions to check e.g.
 
"the audio engine crashes and stops" - does this mean you get the toaster pop-up that the audio engine stopped or does it crash the audio driver so you need to restart software or DAW?

The toaster pop-up thing. No need to restart software or DAW. Just hit the audio button and everything works again. Just frustrating when you're trying to record and you have to do it in chunks of 4 minutes or less. Especially if you're on a roll with comping.
 

Are you connected to LAN? WLAN? blue tooth?

Wired LAN, no wireless card, no bluetooth. One of the first things I tried was disabling the LAN. No change.
 

anything kicking in after 4 mins according to the task manager?

Nothing that I can identify. When I open performance monitor and wait with the machine sitting idle. The CPU performance graphs are more or less flatlined and then there's a spike at 4 minutes when the audio engine stops. But I have no idea what's causing the spike. 

I tried running the powercfg command suggested above. I didn't copy the results to the share drive so they're still downstairs on the music machine. But I believe there were about 12 or 13 errors. The first one had to do with the display or something similar being set to not turn off. The second had to do with USB suspend being disabled. And them most of the rest had to do with USB devices not being able to enter suspend because USB suspend is disabled. 

I can post the actual results after work if anyone wants to see them.
 

If your interace is USB buss powered, there is a setting that shuts down USB ports try that. 
 
But also load a simple project with bare bones and just the TTS-1. 

JonD

JohanSebatianGremlin
I have already disabled every power saving feature I could find.

For every USB hub?  You can check by going to Device manager, and into the properties of each USB hub.  Under Power Management, the boxes saying to allow to save power (or something like that) should all be unchecked.

I don't recall doing that. I'll check when I get home tonight. Thanks.

Its not just mouse activity that prevents dropouts though. If I'm recording a midi track or just playing/noodling on the midi keyboard, I can work all night and never have a single dropout. But once I'm to the point that I'm recording external instruments (not touching the midi keyboard or mouse during the take) or doing something like just listening to the mix/taking notes, I get dropouts after 4 minutes of no activity.

Ding ding ding ding!!!!!
 
Looks like JonD might be the winner. Some, but not all of the generic and root USB hubs listed in device manager had the box to allow power management unchecked. I made sure all were unchecked and then loaded up sonar and a 4 minute 50 second project file and let it play. Played perfectly to the end, no drop out. 


I'll have to do more testing to be sure, but so far it looks like JonD nailed it. Well done sir and thanks to all who offered their time and knowledge to help with this.