How to resolve dropouts when playing or recording

When you get dropouts when playing or recording, this is an indication that the computer is not responding fast enough to interrupts from the audio device, or that the computer is taking too long in processing the audio before the audio must be transferred to the audio device to be played.  The most common reasons for dropouts are:

• Buffer size is too small for the sample rate and number of channels selected.
  • To resolve this, increase the buffer size.
• Power management is causing the processor to go to sleep, which takes quite a bit of time to wake up, causing the interrupt to be responded to too slowly.
  • To resolve this, in the BIOS of the computer:
    • Turn off Intel SpeedStep (sometimes labeled EIST).
    • Turn off C-States: C1E; C3 and C6.
    • Turn off Intel Trusted Execution Technology.
  • In Control Panel, set your Windows Power Options to High Performance.