Not sure where to start, but I'm at my wits end, have tried reading through this forum for months, but the problems persist. I have been having problems with the stability of my Aurora 8 with my PC running Windows 7.

For starters, half of the time when I start the computer, the Aurora is not recognized. I'll have to restart the Aurora to get it recognized, but just as often, I'll have to restart the computer several times for it to work.

Some of those times when it does work, it will make a very loud pop, clip the signal (not nice for my ears or monitors) and drop out. When this happens, usually it will keep happening until I restart the computer. 

Other times, when I am streaming music from Google Music or Youtube, I will get the infamous snap crack pop noises.

I have optimized my PC/Bios using specs listed at Sweetwater and Black Viper ( I am using the "safe" version listed on Black Viper's website. I've tried deleting and reinstalling the Aurora drivers following the directions, yet the problem persists. I have made sure that the Lynx is the only USB device on the bus that it is connected to. Syncrolok is on, sync is set to internal.

I am running Windows 7 premium 64 bit, mobo is Asus Z170-A, processor is Intel i7-6700k @4.00GHz, 32.0 GB of Ram. I have an M.2 as my startup drive, and a Samsung 500GB SSD for recording in Cubase, and a 1 TB HDD for mass storage. My computer should be screaming fast for this application, so something is not playing nice. I was thinking about updating my BIOS, but I'm not sure if this is the problem.

I would appreciate all the help I can get. Since the Aurora 8 is now discontinued, I want to be sure that I get help before support dries up for this product. (It definitely wasn't cheap, and I need it to work for a long time.) It wasn't as crucial before when I was only using it to stream music (which I would think it should work fine for this application) but now I am going to be using this for critical recording applications for my self and other students, and I can't have anything less than reliably high quality audio.

I NEED to get this stable. Please help!

For starters, the USB driver is 3.34.0, PCB Rev: B, Firmware Rev: 10, sample rate of 44.1. The Aurora 8 is on Firmware Rev: 28.

I did the same thing with iLok and eLicenser dongles, they were unchecked. This process only includes Hubs or Root Hubs, but not controllers, correct?

I did uninstall and delete the old driver before updating, but I will try doing this again and report back. 

I uninstalled the driver via Control Panel - > Programs, Windows indicates uninstalled successfully. I restarted computer. Downloaded and reinstalled driver 3.34.0 after closing all other programs. I did all of this while the Lynx was on, and connected to the computer via USB. After getting through install, setup wizard and Windows confirm that driver was successfully installed. 

It seems to be stable right now. I will keep an eye on this over the next couple of days of normal usage and report back. Hopefully it will be all good news!

I did have one instance of audio dropout, but it happened for a different reason than what I previously mentioned in this thread. It happened while I was lifting the PC off the ground (something I rarely do, and certainly won't do during critical applications.)

So the problem has returned again. It started to happen yesterday after I was mixing a recording using Cubase. I Unplugged the Aurora from the computer, plugged it back in, and the USB device was not recognized by the computer.

Since that time, I have unplugged the ac plug from the aurora for 10+ seconds (along with the usb.) Turned it on, resynced syncrolok. I restarted the computer, plugged the USB into the computer, then into the USB.

Now the Aurora 8 is working sporadically, but I can't get it back to being stable. The clicks and pops are coming back. I've turned off the aurora and back on a bunch of times. Restarted the computer a bunch of times. The Lynx clicks and pops, then will get a big pop and drop out.

Should I try deleting and reinstalling the driver again?

Kevin

What is the length of your USB cable? Are you plugged in directly to the computer or via a USB hub? 

Do you have USB ports on the front and back of the computer? If so try the alternative from where its plugged in now. 

It could be that the USB chip on your system is not ideal for audio. You might consider trying a third party USB2 card, and see if that improves performance. Those are generally pretty inexpensive. 

 

The USB cable is 20' long. It is a 2.0 USB cable, here is the exact model. Will the length of the cable effect the speed of data transfer?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00183E8WE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1#HLCXComparisonWidget_feature_div" rel="nofollow - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00183E8WE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1#HLCXComparisonWidget_feature_div

The cable is plugged directly into the computer, no hub. I tried plugging it into the front of the computer with the same results. I can also confirm that the Lynx Aurora is the only device running on the bus that it is plugged into.

I will look into adding a usb 2.0 pci card. Are there any that you could specifically recommend for using with the Lynx Aurora 8?