Hey All,
 
Re:   Loud Digital Noise Over-Rides Sonar Sound Periodically
 
I have launched a new Dell XPS 8700 computer to replace my old one, exactly as the old one was applied (also a Dell i7 series), interfaced via USB 2 to an existing MOTU 828 mk 3 Hybrid.  Now that I have installed and am working in X3, periodically a loud digital noise will over-ride my Sonar x3 sound and bleep and whirr and make all kinds of digital racket until I pull up Preferences/Audio and start to mess with the driver sound and change the Time Clock settings in the MOTU to internal (may not be related to the noise at all), and I can stop the noise - till the next time. 
 
The noise happens about once every 10 minutes to once every half hour and will run for 2 or 3 minutes and stop.  It appears to be more frequent when I am working with new programs or changing plug-in settings.  I have shut off all system tasks and updates and virus software, other sound cards and drivers, and online backup systems and watched the Task Manager/System Monitor to see what software is running when this noise starts up.  
 
I can find nothing which seems to be causing this.  Chasing this for days. 8(
 
Any help would be appreciated. 

Did you turn off System Sounds? and disable the Network connection?  That is all I've done in both Win 7 and Win 8.1 to prevent interference.
 
I don't know what else Microsoft or Dell has included on that new PC.  I think Skype is installed on some, make sure you disable that.
 
 

Do you have a cell phone by your soundcard?  My cell phone interferes with mine if too close.
 
Jim

fireberd
Did you turn off System Sounds? and disable the Network connection?  That is all I've done in both Win 7 and Win 8.1 to prevent interference.
 
I don't know what else Microsoft or Dell has included on that new PC.  I think Skype is installed on some, make sure you disable that.

Turned off System Sounds, we'll see how that impacts the noise.  I had routed system sounds to a separate device and away from my MOTU, but that still could cause trouble.  And yeah, no Skype. Oddly I have not hear the sound all day today????
 
Thanks!

haydn12
Do you have a cell phone by your soundcard?  My cell phone interferes with mine if too close.
 
Jim

Oh yeah Jim thanks, I make sure that my cell phones are in airplane mode when recording. LOL!! They can cause trouble.  This is internally generated and LOUD, man.  Grabs ahold of my MOTU sound and will not let go.

Well rats, I thought I had fixed it by updating the MOTU 828 mk III Hybrid firmware.  The noise held off for 2 whole hours.  But then it came roaring back just now.  It appears to affect ONLY the analog inputs from the 828 mkIII and not the MIDI instruments which play fine behind the noise.  The noise totally corrupts audio inputs from the 828 mk III.
 
Until I can get to the ASIO Panel and fiddle with it, and that ceases the noise - until next time.
 
TS

I guess first you would have to determine if this is the interface ( drivers) or the actual computer that the noise originates from. And the only way to do that is to beg or borrow a different interface. 
My son had a top of the line Dell Laptop that he fought with for months and found the problem was coming from the BIOS and could not be fixed. Have you ran The DPCLAT test ap? 
 
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

Thanks Cactus, I used this interface with no problem with my last computer which I removed last week, and did not really change anything on the interface, so I believe that it is coming from the new computer, and since the 828 is inputting the analog voice and guitar, but the MIDI is separate USB directly to Sonar X3 and remains uncorrupted, and since the interface worked fine with my last computer, I would venture to say it is some kind of USB manager issue inside the new computer, or some kind of clock/word issue inside of Sonar.
 
Not hardware or compatibility, because the sound is excellent when this is not there, but when it kicks in, and it does seem to be on some sort of schedule, it corrupts the sound infeed from the MOTU via the USB port.
 
Ran the latency checker and between this being a Gen 4 i7 and the speed of the MOTU, it came out very tight, with the latency checker commenting that it should stream real time with no dropouts.
 
When the degradation came on tonight, I went to the active program folder and started disabling every non-essential program running in the shell that I could.  Nothing would abate the corruption of the MOTU USB feed.  This appears to be in Sonar.
 
The only thing that does stop it, is to open the Edit\preferences\Audo Device\Audio Driver option in Sonar, and fiddle with anything and save it.  Then exit preferences and the sound is restored, almost like the Edit\Preferences\Adio Device....  function in Sonar disrupts this process.
 
*shrug
TS

There are many audio devices (including some PC sound devices) that require Windows 8.1 specific drivers.  Devices that worked in Windows 7 or Windows 8 do not work or work properly in Windows 8.1 without the updates. 
 
Roland, for example, had to issue Windows 8.1 specific drivers for their devices.  I have a Roland Octa-Capture and had to have the new 8.1 driver.
 
I do support on the Windows 8 forum and we've seen several with audio problems (along with other hardware problems - mostly with older hardware not current hardware as Microsoft does not support some older PC hardware in Windows 8.1 that was supported in Windows 8).

Good point fireberd,  since with the new computer - I went from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1.  I will hit the MOTU sites then.  I downloaded the most recent driver released Aug 20, 2013.  But will press inside the user community and see if anyone with the 828 mk III Hybrid and 8.1 are having similar issues.
 
TS