Certainly everyone here are suggesting the usual suspects and you need to go though them.
 
There is something that struck me about your hardware.
 
The Nimbus Z2 has five internal drive bays but there are 3 external drives mentioned in the configuration. I wonder what portions of the DAW are running on the external drives. Are the external drives bus powered? I might try running exclusively from internal hardware with the external drives powered off (if they have external power supplied) or disconnected if they are bus powered.
 
If all else fail, Rain does configure the Z2 with SONAR. Did they setup this unit? Either way, they might be able to help you sort out your issues with their hardware.

CJ I believe you are thinking about DropoutMsec I bumped mine to 750
 

Hi Daylaa,let me try.....
Your problem semms like a spike cpu overpowered and many times this is a wifi mobo related issue.
You can try to disable all wifi devices and cpu power speed up in your mobo set up.
Last for now,choose the background servicies in System Advanced properties tab in W7.
Good luck
 
 

I haven't read all post. It can be numerous things that can cause problems. Have you done XP tweaks on Windows 7 can be one. That can cause the OS and SONAR instability. 
Here is some other advice you can go thru.
 
* Disable Speed step, sleep in BIOS
 
* Check "core parking" = disable it Check the internet how to do that.
 
* Power schema in windows 7 to full. Check same on USB ports especially if you use USB audio card so isn't randomly sleeping..= causing drop outs
 
* Disable UAC
 
* Processor scheduler shall always be set to "PROGRAM" not "Background" on Windows 7 and Windows 8. On XP another story...
 
* Never ever disable AERO. All graphic shall be set to full!!! Very important!
 
* Virus program = use Microsoft Security essential, free and no bad impact on the computer
 
 
Good luck!
Best Regards
Freddie

It may go without saying, but your OS is x64, right?
 
For people trying to help, there is a prior thread on this with more information...
http://forum.cakewalk.com...Problems-m2848204.aspx

X2 is not unstable so its something with your computer equipment or configuration. 
My questions and suggestions: 
 - You should be running X2A.... download and install the update. 
 - What is the number of samples you have your ASIO driver set to? Try starting with 256. You can lower that once you get it working better. 
 - Make sure the audiophile 192 is the only soundcard selected in Preferences-Audio. You should use it at 24 bit, 441KHz at least until you resolve your problem. 
 - Make sure you're not using any demo or trial plug-ins.
 - What are you using the 3 external hard drives for? I wouldn't use those for Sonar. 
 - I assume the SSD is your c: drive. Do you have Sonar installed on the SSD? 
 - Run a FULL memory test. (Try the Windows 7 test, but you should also run MEMTEST or take out all but one RAM and see if the problem goes away. Then put them back one at a time. I suspect you have 4 8GB DDR3 modules.)
 - Dimension Pro should not be crashing your system. Can you run Dim Pro standalone without it crashing? 
 - I would turn the 64-bit double precision engine back on. I've never had any trouble with that. 
 - What are your reported latencies on Preferences-Audio-Driver settings? 

DaveNY5 has good tips. Also, I run a 6 year old laptop with only 1 processor and it can handle Dim Pro without any problems. It can handle a pile of Dim Pros without problems. My laptop processor and memory has a windows experience index of 6 and 4 GB of RAM.

Hi again. Thanks so much for everyone's input. I will explore all leads and answer all questions when I can dedicate a few hours to it again. As you can imagine, to do everything will take lots of time. Please don't think I've gone quiet on you.

I am surprised CJ did not say it is the driver.
 
dan

chuckebaby
posting your specs might yield better results to pin point certain issues.

THis is from the original post:
 
Sonar X2 Producer 
Rain Computer's Nimbus Z2 I7 Processor 
32GB RAM 
Windows 7 Pro 
Solid State HD
M Audio Audiophile 192 
M Audio Studiophile BX5a Deluxe's 
Edirol PCR 500 
Melodyne 
3 External HDrvs 

 
I guess they weren't specific enough.
 
 He doesn't mention colour of chair, number /style of lava lamp(s), room treatment..