Playback device errors

[leavings]

I've been having a bit of trouble with my setup, and I'm not sure if it's a fault in Cakewalk or with my pre-amp. I thought I would see if anyone else has experienced something similar.

I'm using an Aardvark Q10 as a pre-amp with CPA9 on a Win XP system. The monitors are hooked directly into the Aardvark. When I start up the computer, everything works great for anywhere between 10 minutes and 3 hours. Without fail, at some point the computer will cease to recognize the Aardvark as the desired playback device. Anything I try to play is silent, and the mic inputs are no longer responsive. If I switch over to my Soundblaster, my computer speakers still work fine. When I restart, the problem is fixed.

This happens regardless of what I set as my preferred playback device. Naturally, if I set the Aardvark as the desired device, the Soundblaster will not work. However, the problem still occurs and when I switch back to the soundblaster, that works fine. I thought initially that the problem was in the driver for the Aardvark, but I checked and made sure I have the most recent updates.

Does anyone know what is causing this? It isn't wholely incapacitating because I can always just restart. But it IS pretty annoying. If you have any ideas, please leave them here. If you have suspicions but need more info from me please ask.

Thanks,
Peter

[Bulls Hit]

Which OS are you using?

It's almost as if you've got a memory overflow from some program that's blowing your Aardvark drivers away and when you restart the drivers get reloaded and it all works again for a while

[leavings]

I'm using Windows XP. My computer is fairly new and powerful. I've worked before with 15 or 16 tracks simultaneously and had no problem with memory overload. It seems like the two sound devices are messing with each other, but I have no idea why or how...

[dachay2tnr]

I think Bulls Hit is on the right track. It sounds as if something is using your drivers and then not releasing them when done.

Do you use any other audio programs when this happens - e.g., Media Player, Sound Forge, etc.?

You might also try checking the Check Box in Sonar that says Share Drivers with Other Programs. I believe it is in the Options > Audio menu. That might fix it.

[leavings]

Cakewalk and the Aardvark will still work fine even if I'm playing something through the soundblaster, but I generally don't use both simultaneously.

I didn't see that box in the Options>audio menu, I'll look around for it. However, I did find that under synchronization, the 'Full Chase Lock' was selected rather than the 'Trigger and Freewheel' option. It advocates using Full Chase Lock when chasing to MIDI time code and the other when "sound card has a word clock input." I don't know what the latter means but could this have anything to do with it?

Thanks, Peter

[Porter]

What sort of power supply are you running, watt wise? I know this is a stab in the dark, however you might be on the border with your power, when you use something else it takes the power from the Aardvark to power the other piece of Hardware, hence the Aardvark stops functioning.

Just a thought,

Porter

[Qwerty]

Make sure you have the 7.04 series of drivers for the Q10, preferrably configured as an ASIO device.

Do not use Power management of any kind.
Do not use a screen saver
Do not use a Windows sound scheme
Do not have the Q10 set as the Windows default card.

All of that seemed to make my Direct Pro 2496, (which uses the same driver set and architecture as the Q10), behave in a more stable fashion.

Q.

[leavings]

Hey Qwerty, I took your advice and tried making all the changes you recommended. I realized I was running version 5.22 of the Q10 driver. I updated to 7.04 and haven't had any problems since. While I can't say with absolute certainty that this was the key issue, I'd be willing to put money on it.

Thanks for the help,
Peter