ClarkPlaysGuitar
Hey Leee & all, I see this thread is now marked as "solved." I've gone through all 4 pages but didn't notice any one post marked as having "the" answer, but several marked as helpful. Leee, could you tell me if there is one particular thing that turned it around for you, or was it a combination of everything? I'm still having the odd freeze-up with buzzing sound occur, and it happens about 15 to 20% of the time when I hit "play," and about 5% of the time when I hit "record." I've implemented several of the suggestions in this thread, with no luck yet. I guess I'm being lazy and trying to avoid going through all 4 pages & trying everything suggested, lol.
 
Thanks!

The answer for me was to disable and uninstall any system based HD Audio drivers, whether they are Windows or from the manufacturer of my motherboard.   Once they were uninstalled I had no further Audio Engine Stops or dropouts.
The problem NOW is that since I updated the to the latest Windows 10 release, those drivers have come back.
They aren't in use, but they are still listed in my Device Driver window.  Someone gave me the solution to go into the BIOS to make Windows stop reinstalling these drivers.  I'm going to have to go back in this thread and refresh my memory.  But for now, everything is still running smoothly.  As long as there are not ACTIVE HD Audio drivers running on my machine, except for the ONE that I'm using with my audio interface (Focusrite Saffire Pro 24).

Thanks, Lee! I'll dig in to my issue a little more over the next week & will add checking out system based HD audio drivers to my "to do" list. I'll post back here if I find it has any effect on my issue.
 
@Frankjcc, I know the symptoms are different, but I have discovered that sometimes the root cause of a problem on one system may manifest itself differently on another system. I agree it may be Focusrite related, although I ran the exact same hardware configuration most of this year with no issues. After the 2017.08 update the weird buzz/lock-up thing started, so I suspect there is maybe some update/driver compatibility thing going on. Or it could be something else, lol. I just keep trying out solutions from other problems, even if they are only vaguely similar. I'll check my buffer settings (I'm not in the studio now) later today & let you know where they're at, and maybe I'll play around with them a bit, too.

I think the heart of the problem is that when it comes to a PC (windows) system every system is different. We can hobble together a PC from hundreds of different parts and miraculously it will run Windows. 
Possibly the heart of these systems is the BIOS. 
The mention of how Windows updates re sets all the setting you made. For me this is true on my office machine but not true on my DAW machine.
I built both computers about the same time and for the office machine I used cheap components. As a result that machine is always doing stupid things, like it will turn it's self on when nobody's around? It's haunted. It also gets screwed right up after every W10 update. My DAW seems to retain all my custom settings. So this will be the quality of the BIOS and MoBo should be questioned
 

ClarkPlaysGuitar
Thanks, Lee! I'll dig in to my issue a little more over the next week & will add checking out system based HD audio drivers to my "to do" list. I'll post back here if I find it has any effect on my issue.
 
@Frankjcc, I know the symptoms are different, but I have discovered that sometimes the root cause of a problem on one system may manifest itself differently on another system. I agree it may be Focusrite related, although I ran the exact same hardware configuration most of this year with no issues. After the 2017.08 update the weird buzz/lock-up thing started, so I suspect there is maybe some update/driver compatibility thing going on. Or it could be something else, lol. I just keep trying out solutions from other problems, even if they are only vaguely similar. I'll check my buffer settings (I'm not in the studio now) later today & let you know where they're at, and maybe I'll play around with them a bit, too.

I completely understand the idea of trying other peoples fixes so that even if that's not your exact problem it should at least be an optimization or even a preventative measure.  I'm giving you this advice however because I know exactly what you are talking about, I had this problem, I don't have this problem anymore, I used to have different settings that worked until one of the updates most likely the one you pointed out, I'm sure cakewalk optimized something,(or not) that gave us adverse effects, I don't gamble anymore but I betchu this is your problem.

Now I'm having a problem switching between hearing audio coming from Sonar or any stand alone virtual instruments and with audio coming from online or a local audio file on my hard drive.
Sometimes after I'm using Sonar, I'll go to listen to something on YouTube, but there's no audio.
Likewise, sometimes when I'm streaming online audio, I'll open Sonar (or a standalone virtual instrument) and get no sound.

I can't figure out why it's doing this, but the workaround for me is to power cycle my audio interface (Focusrite, Saffire Pro 24)
Last night, after watching some YouTube videos, I closed my web browser and opened Blue3 (a virtual Hammond organ)  It played fine for a few minutes, then the audio just cut off.  I turned off my audio interface, turned it back on, then it started working again.

And I checked the drivers, the only audio drivers installed are the ones for the Focusrite interface.

Have you tried to match Windows settings to what you use in projects?
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-other_settings/how-to-change-sound-control-panel-settings-in/5a70718b-7ecf-4547-a64a-22efda8da0c2?auth=1
I mean if your projects are 48kHz/24bit, setting the same for Windows sounds can prevent or at least reduce glitches.
Sometimes required combination is not in the list, getting it there is hardware/driver specific.
 

here's an interesting discussion http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/are-a-lot-of-asio-drivers-fake-meaning-they-dont-bypass-the-windows-mixer.643282/

I love Sonar and this forum.  We are really so lucky to have a great program and great people, including some of the original developers like Noel, pros like Craig and longtime users, who pitch in to educate us and help sustain the creative flow.  Thanks everyone.

pwalpwal
here's an interesting discussion http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/are-a-lot-of-asio-drivers-fake-meaning-they-dont-bypass-the-windows-mixer.643282/

Many statements and conclusions in this discussion and linked from there WDM vs ASIO "explanation" have to be interpreted with caution. I do not want to start long discussion why, so let say that is just my opinion. 

azslow3

pwalpwal
here's an interesting discussion http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/are-a-lot-of-asio-drivers-fake-meaning-they-dont-bypass-the-windows-mixer.643282/

Many statements and conclusions in this discussion and linked from there WDM vs ASIO "explanation" have to be interpreted with caution. I do not want to start long discussion why, so let say that is just my opinion. 

agree completely, it is a (recent) discussion, and a good example of not being able find something definitive, but it's also very like any thread here: needs parsing