Audio Dropout Error Code 9 - what can cause this?

[Richard DeAngelis]

My Cakewalk by Bandlab config on 2020.11 is running on a Win 10 system, with an i5-7400 3.0Ghz series proc and 16GB of memory.  I was running flawless as recently as yesterday, and have been running flawlessly for over a year now.  Today I rebooted the system midday and it ran awhile before I went to work again  - a couple of hours went by with the system idle.  When I came back I was totally unable to play my 4 track project (with Addictive drums as the only plugin).  I have 3 recorded mic tracks that are audio WAV, and the one Addictive drum track.  I am getting "Audio Dropout 9" - which is a MIDI buffer dropout error.  I checked everything.  I increased this MIDI buffer from 256 to 512.  My boot and audio SSD drives have plenty of free space, they have been defragged.  I turned off ALL background apps - never had to do that before.  And still, after several reboots, when I start the track the playback is not smooth, it stops and starts.  There is no audio playback sound at all.   And then I get Audio Dropout (9) and it crashes.  I have been using Cakewalk since Sonar 3.  Over 20 years i am pretty good with troubleshooting, but this one has me completely stumped.   Can anyone help?  Do I need to rename the AUD.INI for a safe copy and then rebuild it like we did in the "old days"?  Thank you SO MUCH in advance for any assistance you can offer!!  Cakewalk Forum members are the best!

[Promidi]

I have to admit to having no clue what could be causing this.

Renaming your AUD.INI certainly  wouldn’t do any harm.

Also, have your checked that the driver for your audio interface is the latest (using manufacturer's websites rather than Windows updates)?   Maybe a Windows updated borked the driver.  Is your Windows fully patched?   Using the latest AD2 (Which is 2.1.14 build 201201)?

Can you tell us a bit about your audio subsystem (the card used, driver mode, sample rate, bit depth, audio buffer size)

[Richard DeAngelis]

Promidi - thanks for stepping up!! My Cakewalk is the latest update.  I have the full ProChannel suite of plugins.   I have a tried your suggestions regarding updating AD2 (I ran the XLN Online Installer and updated everything).  I also renamed the Aud.ini, and recreated it.  I see the new AUD file, but no difference.  Still a herky-jerky transport and no sound (though I see meters moving).  Then I removed AD2 from the Synth Rack and deleted the MIDI tracks so that there are only 3 Audio tracks in the project with no plugins running.  Still no difference.  I rebooted a few times.  No difference.  My Audio drive is 37% full.  My boot drive is 42% full.  I see no excessive CPU or memory activity.  All other apps work fine.  The only recent change made to the system is to add the NI Guitar Rig 6 Plugin to my system.  But it installed fine and I am not using it in my current faulty project.  I have 249 plugins, but all load without errors.  I am using a Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 Gen2  Interface in ASIO mode at 44.1/24-bit with 256 buffer.  I guess my next step is to delete and replace the Focusrite driver with the latest?  But  am skeptical that this will help.  Does anyone have any other ideas?  Could a Windows Update cause this?  This is really unusual, and I am stopped dead in my work.  THANKS!!!!!

Audio IF: Focusrite 18i8 2nd Gen.  ASIO mode. 24bit 44.1khz 256 samples 

Software: Cakewalk by Bandlab (Always the latest build)

Rapture Pro, Z3TA+ 2,  Addictive drums 2, Addictive Keys, Acustica Plugins, Focusrite Red Plugins, Misc VST2 and VST3 (not part of current issue)

[Promidi]

That all looks fine there.  Very similar to mine.  I am currently doing a project with AD2 and I am not having the issues you're describing.

Definitely update the Focusrite drivers....   even if it doesn't solve the issue, it always good to have the latest.

Just to rule out a hardware issue, have a look at the Windows system event viewer for any hardware issues that stick out...   especially hard disk errors (like bad blocks).  It wouldn't do any harm using a utility to check the disk's SMART info....  I use CrystalDiskinfo for this.