make sure the windows sound settings are the same used for sonar: bit level, rate.

Uncheck the exclusive control setting.

I had to do this with windows 7 to be happier.


And: disable in bios the onboard sound while installing other drivers

after install, turn on onboard sound if ya wanna

After fighting most of the weekend I went back to windows 7. I updated the audio interface & updated the bios with no real luck. Everything is running stable again, actually I am installing the last few apps and plugins. It kind of sucks because I did really like windows 8 except the glitching. Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys I do appreciate it. Maybe after a service pack comes out I will give windows 8 another try. I might have to do with the hardware or components on my machine, I installed the octa-capture on my girlfriends kids computer and things seemed to work fine, it came with windows 8 on it already and honestly that is what fueled my desire to get the upgrade myself. That was why I got the bios update from HP, thought it might help. Anyway thanks again guys, I am looking forward to making some music today!!!

Its recomended that you run windows compatabuility test on any pc prior to installing Windows 8. This will tell you of any incompatabilitie your PC may have, if you have any, then you will need to upgrade the pc befor installing the new opperating system.  If you dont then you will have problems. I ran the compatability utility n my laptop and recomended srveral upgrades, which i choes to ignor and installed Windows 8. I had load of problems aspecialwith sonar and drivers. However i also ran the compatability util on my studio PC which said everything was good to go apart from a couple of programs which needed updating, ie Nero and Soundfourge 10. After formating the heard drive and a clean install of Windows 8 and then my Audio drivers and sonar X2a everything is fine, infact its verystable quick to load, sonar runs like a dream.
A note about other drivers, ie video etc, i let windows 8 sort them out. I have not installd any other driver.
It may be that your PC are not compleatly ompatable with Windows 8.  

I wouldn't blame the issues we have on Windows 8 because you also have to keep in mind that software developers are to blame as well. If these companies dont move with the times they fall behind causing these issues and then people blame Windows 8. This is not the case, its very complex and these companies have to work side by side to get things right. Some do, some take longer to do it and some don't at all...
 
Anyway, I did the same upgrade on my Sony Laptop from Windows 7 pro 64bit to Windows 8 Pro 64bit and had no issues at all with the upgrade or any of my applications. All work just fine. I do however notice my laptop takes a little longer than usual to boot but I am sure that is because its under spec. in some areas for Windows 8 which I was aweare of. So far, very pleased with the upgrade, how easy it was an the lack of issues I had in the process.
 
I think some of the drivers you are using have not been updated by the developers so your having these issues. Don't be to quick to blame Windows 8.

I ran the assistant and it said it was compatible, not sure what went wrong. The laptop was purchased just 6 months ago and I got the upgrade to windows 8 for 14.99. The only external things I use are the interface, a hard drive and a mouse lol. Maybe it is something to do with the integrated components? Anyway I am back on 7 and recorded for a few hours last night with no problems. Thanks again for all the help and suggestions.

slartabartfast


While it is certainly true that Win 8 may have a lot of incompatibilities with hardware/software that was running well under Win 7, it is also true that upgrading, whether via upgrade path or as a clean install does a lot more than install a new OS. Unless you are truly anal about taking notes on every tweak, update or deletion that you did under the old system, you might not be able to reproduce those changes in the new OS. Many of the specific fixes or general tweaks that you had under the old OS will not be carried over to the new one. None of that will be corrected in any Microsoft service pack ever. 

Like this? 

When I upgraded from XP to Win 7 and had to spend months re-installing and tweaking again, I vowed never again to skip a migration step. No matter how painful, it beats re-installing stacks of DVDs and testing/tweaking/adjusting everything again.

Each year I go through at least one of these notebooks. I've been doing and have notebooks like this that go back before 1995. I could probably still re-install the Linux 1.2 kernel and get it running again if I get a USB floppy drive to boot it up.