ebay is your friend.

I thought I was losing my mind with the replies that I was getting. "When the **** did I say anything about latency?", I thought to myself! I'm sorry y'all. I meant to say that I'm having these dropouts ALL of the time. Not just while in Sonar X2. And it was happening on ALL three of my bootable drives(one for music, one for games, and one for other stuff) BEFORE I even installed any software. The dropouts only last about a second, and it seems like some scheduled task (update software?) is interrupting the driver or something. I have NO latency when I insert a softsynth and play my M-Audio KeyStudio. 
Now, to those of you who keep saying I need to buy an audio interface, I KNOW! I'd like the Mbox Pro or a RME HDSPe AIO WHEN I can afford it. But until then, I need to fix the problem. When I DO get one, will it replace the Realtek stuff ALL of the time, or just when I work on music? Because I'm tired of hearing the dropout when I'm watching movies or listening to mp3's in iTunes too. Thanks again! (formatting started trippin for some reason!)

To diagnose dropouts, start by downloading the free DPC Latency Checker. Instructions are on the site. In the meantime, if you have a wireless network, try disabling that. It's a very common cause of dropouts.

titetrax


Thanks for your help but I can't afford to buy ANYTHING right now which is why I came to the forum for advice on how to FIX the problem. I can't be the only person experiencing audio dropouts from the Realtek driver so I thought someone here would have a fix(remove the XXXX driver file, uncheck the xxxx button, etc.). I guess I'll try the ASUS forum since my motherboard is from them. Try to remember in the future that BUYING a new this or that, has probably ALREADY occurred to a person seeking help and OBVIOUSLY wasn't an option. 

It needs to be an option.
No system is stronger than its weakest link. The Realtek is your weak link.
You have made a significant investment in software/hardware, yet ignored a crucial component. The Realtek is not suited to the task. Period.
You cannot haul two tons of bricks in a half ton truck.
You can check the ASUS forum if you want, but there is no fix for the Realtek.

Edit:Crossed posts. You should not be having general dropouts. Are you having problems streaming from your drives, or from the internet?
If internet, is your isp Charter?

At Robert B - I'm a Grammy award winning R&B producer(I played the bassline on 'Gangsta's Paradise') and have played keyboards for Gladys Knight, Smokey Robinson, Peabo Bryson, Erykah Badu, and many others. Just because I know how to use a high-end audio-midi recording software doesn't mean I know everything about the interworkings of a computer. Maybe YOU do and maybe that's why YOU don't have any notable accolades related to music production. It's impossible to be knowledgeable about EVERYTHING. If you don't know the answer to a question, then just say you don't. Your opinion about whether or not I have used MY money properly is just your opinion. I'm saving up for the audio interface that I want to get but for now I'm recording music just FINE without one as long as the 1 second dropouts don't occur. THE DROPOUTS ARE NOT RELATED TO ME RECORDING MUSIC. You still haven't even answered my question about whether or not an audio interface will stop the dropouts when I'm NOT doing music. In other words, be helpful or shut the **** up.

At RioJazz - Thanks for the tip about disabling the wireless network. That just might be the problem. You seem to be the only one who understands the issue that I'm having with these intermittent dropouts.

Sort your attitude if you want any help - bragging about what you've done doesn't endear you to anyone else, possibly with the exception of your immediate family members.

The issue has been stated quite plainly - you've got a smoking hot pc, probably in excess of a couple of grands worth and you expect it to run on a 20 cent chip?

What did you spend all your royalties on?

Erykah Badu?  Wow..  Actually, I'd rather drink several bottles of apple cider vinegar, than suffer 10 seconds of listening to E. Badu.


Gangsta Paradise?   K, whatever..  You get props for that.   But Badu? = Fail.   Go buy an audio card.

Get a Roland, this is a Roland owned Company..  Here's the top of the line model

http://www.sweetwater.com.tore/detail/OctaCapture/

http://www.rolandus.com/products/details/1127/498

Some more losers without anything constructive to say. Now fools want to tell me their musical listening preferences. I also recorded with Don Henley. Got something to say about that too? Must be my lucky day! LOL I just happened to look at another post that explained using an app called Latency Mon to uncover buffer underruns. Now I'm on the right track to figuring out the problem that's causing the dropouts. Do something constructive with your lives instead of trolling support forums and acting like you've got the right to tell someone what they need to get. When someone tells you they can't afford something at the moment, then you either work around that and help them find a solution, or shut the **** up.

To RioJazz - The program you suggested was cool too! Thanks for that advice. I think you would like LatencyMon too, if you haven't tried it already.

Have you tried disabling any antivirus  software? Or firewall? Im pretty sure that the microsoft antimalware service is a known cause of choppiness in the realtek domain, so may be worth investigation. Anyway, you are on the right track using latency mon and although I agree with the general view that a dedicated soundcard is a much better prospect, you shouldn't be getting dropouts with the Realtek and its a solvable issue. 

Bibs