Have you get a registry cleaner/checker program?
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Have you get a registry cleaner/checker program?
Found this after a quick google search for 2i2 driver installation issues:
https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-...usrite-Drivers
Going to give this a go and see if it sorts it all out.....nope, gave it a try (un-installing the driver software, then installing the latest version first and then plugging in the 2i2) and it didn't fix the sound issue, I'm still getting the crackle and distortion.
Geez, it's being a real stubborn one isn't it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Don't have one installed, I guess I could try CCleaner and see if that does anything to fix it, don't know if CCleaner is compatible with Windows 10 though.....got CCleaner installed and turns out it is compatible.
Something else I've noticed, everytime I install the 2i2 driver software it seems to keep installing itself as a 32 bit version rather than a 64 bit version, which it should, given that I'm running 64 bit OSes on both my laptop and desktop computers.
My understanding is that if you're running a 64 bit OS you need to install 64 bit drivers in order for them to work properly, yes I know that the 64 bit versions of Windows contain a bit of coding that bridges between 32 bit and 64 bit software, but that doesn't always work like it's supposed to, and 32 bit software can mis-behave when running on a 64 bit OS.
Update:
Just for giggles, and cause I couldn't think of anything else to try, I decided to try doing a quick and dirty audio recording, using just my Fender USA Strat as a signal-source, no plugins, just plugged straight-into input 1 of my Scarlett 2i2, to see if the crackly distortion sound issue affected both recording and playback,.....well, audio seems to be recording cleanly, and it seems to play back cleanly too, it's just when I try playing-back any of the demo songs that come with FL Studio that the crackly distortion audio issue manifests itself....hmmm that's weird, that never used to happen before, it's only since about the 20th of last month (January 2020) that the audio issue has been manifesting itself.
Going to try installing the rest of my Daw software on my laptop and see if the crackly distortion sound issue manifests itself with them, if it does then, by logic, that suggests that it has something to do with something common to all my Daw software.
Just tried playing back one of the demo songs in Reason 10, audio seems to be playing back a little bit cleaner than FL Studio 20, still getting the occasional audio-pop, but it's not as bad as it was in FL Studio.
I'm wondering if it's my laptop's CPU, not having enough processing grunt, that's causing the issue, it should easily have enough processing grunt cause it's an 8th generation Quad-Core Intel i5-8265U 1.6Ghz with turbo-boost up to 3.9Ghz, it comes up in Device Manager as an 8-Core CPU cause each of it's four physical cores can handle two threads simultaneously.
Okay, just got Ableton Live 9 Standard re-installed on my laptop, audio seems to be playing-back cleanly, for each of the Daw tests I've done so far, I've set the sample-rate to 44,100kHz and buffer to 512.
So far the audio crackling/distortion issue seems to be the worst with FL Studio 20 Producer Edition, all the Daw software installations are brand-new clean installs on a clean install of Windows 10 64Bit, brand new clean installs of all the drivers and windows updates, and etc.
Seriously considering upgrading to a new Scarlett 2i2 3rd generation audio interface, my current 2i2 is a 2nd generation, the 3rd generation uses usb 3.1 connectivity and as it just so happens, my Acer laptop does feature a usb 3.1 port.
The Scarlett 2i2 2nd generation uses a usb 2.0 port, a usb 3.1 port has a much faster data-bandwidth than a usb 2.0 port, I think it's about 6Gb/sec for usb 3.1 versus 480Mb/sec for usb 2.0.
A 2i2 could happily run on a USB1.1 connection. USB 2 is far more than capable of running a much bigger interface. USB3, though data transfer can be quicker, doesn't seem to improve latency by all accounts. In fact, some interfaces with USB3 have slightly higher latency than a similar one with USB2.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
I think I've pretty much exhausted all the possibilities with regards to troubleshooting, and I think I've been pretty thorough in the process, I'm really starting to think that it's time to seriously look at buying a brand-new audio interface for my laptop, Focusrite tech support haven't been very helpful, still waiting for them to reply back to the last email I sent to them, also waiting for a response/reply from Image Line tech support too, Image Line are the makers of FL Studio 20.
From the results of testing with my Daw software, the crackling distortion issue seems to be the worst with FL Studio 20 (and only when playing back the demo songs for some weird reason), my other Daws, Reason 10, and Ableton Live 9.7 Standard don't seem to be anywhere near as bad, although I do hear the occasional pop and crackle.
Wish there was an instant fix for it other than just not using my laptop at all.
Well....I've really done it now, as a possible fix for my 2i2's sound issue, I thought that I would try uninstalling and then re-installing the device drivers for the usb ports on my Acer laptop.....unfortunately that has just made things worse rather than better....the usb ports no longer works, the usb mouse no longer works, the touchpad on my laptop no longer works, and I can't do a clean install of Windows 10 to fix it cause there's no built in DVD drive, I only have an external usb DVD drive but can't use it cause the usb ports don't work all I can do is press the power button to force a hard re-start.....a $1700.00 laptop has just been rendered useless by my mistake.....well seeing as I've had so many technical problems with all my music gear and computer gear, I've decided to quit trying to pursue a music career and just do nothing for the rest of my life from now on...no more guitars, no more playing music, no more trying to create music, I've spent $1000.00's on getting gear together that just constantly has problems, so, so long everyone.....
Looks like another partial rebuild is in order Doc, at least being a Win device you can take care of most of the issues yourself, hopefully you have set restore points in the OS so you can restore.
Microsoft should be able to help you with the Win 10 rebuild stuff, your licenced copy will be linked to the address info of the motherboard and hard drive, losing both creates a whole world of pain.
The Tab key ( and shift tab ) in conjunction with the Win and arrow keys will allow you to navigate and the enter key to launch until you get the USB stuff sorted.
If I had been at my PC and not on my phone when you made the 08:30 post I would have recommended you download and run Coretemp to see what was happening heatwise in the CPU, my desktop started doing all sorts of weird hangs and stutters when the silver paste on the heatsink needed replacing causing the core to overheat.
Coretemp here https://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
It's okay, I managed to get the laptop to boot into Windows and somehow it fixed itself automatically, it could very well be a CPU overheating issue, the thermal paste they use does have a habit of drying-out.
Anyway, all the usb ports on my laptop are working again, as is the mouse, somehow they all got fixed automatically.
Sorry for my ranting in my last couple of posts, was feeling a bit brain-tired and frustrated.
Note to self: Do Not try uninstalling the usb 3.1 controller again!!!!
Beware USB 3 and wireless connected devices such as mouse and keyboard, there are weird RFI issues that will send you grey very quicklyQuote:
Originally Posted by DrNomis_44
Update:
A great mate of mine just popped by for a visit, he brought his Scarlett 2i2, a 1st generation device, but very similar to my 2i2, with him, and we tried it out with my laptop, and we were getting the same audio sound quality issues with it as I was getting with my 2i2, so I'm thinking that possibly rules-out my 2i2 as being the cause, I've tried re-installing the most up to date beta driver that Focusrite tech support emailed me (they actually emailed a download link for it), and I was still getting the audio quality issues, I even got my mate to listen to the crackly distortion and he agreed with me that there was an issue I was experiencing, I wasn't just imagining, or hallucinating it, it was really occuring for real.
So as far as I can tell:
1, It's not a hardware issue with my Scarlett 2i2, since trying my mate's 2i2 gets the same result, no improvement in sound quality.
2, Installing the very latest beta driver doesn't fix the issue.
3, It appears to be an issue with my laptop, whether it's a hardware issue or a software issue I don't know since it's hard to determine.
4, I don't think it's an issue caused by Microsoft's latest Windows 10 cumulative updates for 2020, my desktop pc has the exact same cumulative updates installed and my 2i2 works fine with it.
5, I don't know if it's an issue caused by my laptop's usb ports, my 2i2 works fine with my desktop pc's usb 3.0 ports.
Could it be that my laptop's usb ports aren't providing enough power to my 2i2?, my desktop pc has an 850 Watt power supply in it.
What I don't understand is, if it is a hardware issue with my laptop, involving the usb ports, why would my 2i2 work perfectly well for at least a year (I purchased my 2i2 in about January or February last year), and then suddenly stop working on the 20th last month?, you'd think it would be more likely to not work properly at all.
From what you had already confirmed I don't think the 2i2 was ever the issue I still think it resides in the USB area within the laptop.
Have you tried generic ASIO drivers
Haven't tried a generic ASIO driver yet, but FL Studio does come with one called FL Studio ASIO, I guess it won't hurt to give it a go, FL Studio also comes with a driver called ASIO4All, unfortunately, when I re-installed FL Studio 20.6.2 on my laptop, I didn't get it to install FL Studio ASIO in the process, so there are no generic ASIO drivers installed on my laptop.Quote:
Originally Posted by dave.king1
Update:
I've just noticed another issue with my new Acer laptop, for some weird reason, my laptop's touchpad appears to be not working like it is supposed to, Device Manager reports that it is working properly, yet when I try moving the cursor by touching the touchpad, it stays exactly where it is, in Windows settings, I've got the on/off switch set to on, I've even done a driver update to the most latest one available, yet the touchpad still doesn't seem to work as it's supposed to......weird.
Surely the touchpad not working wouldn't have something to do with my 2i2's audio issues?, I can't see how that would be so.....
Update:
I just did a quick google search on the touchpad issue and found the solution, all I had to do was to press the F7 key and now it is working like it is supposed to.....thank God for that, I was starting to think that the touchpad had somehow gotten damaged by the bluescreen I got before the 2i2's sound issue manifested itself.....*cue sigh of relief*..
It way be worth doing a full Windows re-install. Looks like the BSOD event has really messed things up and a full re-install may be the only way to fix it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Already done several clean installs since the bluescreen.
Have you checked that the power management scheme hasn't changed because of an update? For recording and good playback, you don't want the laptop to have the processor or peripherals slow down at all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Yep, did that too, I've set the power management for all the usb bus controllers to always on, I've also set the power/sleep settings to high performance as well, I checked the CPU performance in Task Manager and the CPU is running at about 3.7Ghz, it's an Intel i5-8265U Quad Core that normally runs at 1.6Ghz but turbo boosts to up to 3.9Ghz, also, each physical CPU core can process two threads simultaneously, that effectively makes it an 8-Core CPU, so no shortage of CPU processing power.
I'm convinced that my 2i2 isn't what's causing the audio quality issue, I'm also convinced that it's not the usb cable, since I've tried three different ones and got the same result, and the only conclusion I can come to is that there's some kind of hardware issue with my laptop that's causing the audio issue, but I'm at a loss as to what the hardware issue is since my laptop appears to be otherwise operating normally as it is supposed to, there are no malfunctioning device indications in Device Manager as far as I can tell.
I'm at a loss as to what's causing the sound issue with my Scarlett 2i2, I haven't heard back from Focusrite tech support, and I think I've done as much as I humanly could to try and troubleshoot the issue.
Roughly when did it go fritz, something in the config has changed maybe a paramater returned to default or changed to something weird.
If you don't have the updates scheduled think about when Win does it's monthly updates or when you installed a new piece of hardware/software, there will almost certainly be something that coincides with the failure.
Example of blaming the wrong thing.
A mates race car wouldn't crank over and he told me he was going to buy a new starter motor, not cheap and very hard to access.
I told him not to spend a cent until I had a look.
1. connected the battery direct to the starter, spun up so no problems there.
2. worked back through the wiring and found the the lug on one of the cables on the battery isolator switch ( big red key ) had been crimped and soldered, it had been crimped over the insulation and the solder had broken due to vibration.
3. stripped and recrimped the cable and all was good again, did both ends of both cables just to be sure.
End result was problem fixed in about and hour and didn't spend a cent.
The moral is that sometimes we get blinded by our own knowledge and blame the wrong thing for the problem without looking at all the possibilities.
My race car was hunting and stalling at idle, the common wisdom I got from many a mechanic was that I needed a new airflow sensor.
Problem turned out to be a couple of pinholes in the extractors allowing pulses of air in which made the O2 sensor in the exhaust think the car was leaning out, thus the hunting looking for fuel.
A couple of dabs with the Mig welder and it was sorted.
Don't over think it
Quote:
Originally Posted by dave.king1
Good point, I'm sure that whatever caused the audio issue with my Scarlett 2i2 is probably something so simple that it's easily overlooked, but for the life of me, I can't think what it could be, to all intents everything on my Acer laptop looks like it's working as it's supposed to, I know all the usb ports are working properly as they should, and Device Manager reports that they are all working as well as all the other devices, yet it is obvious that something is causing the audio issue with the 2i2, just can't figure out what it is.
Perhaps have a wander through this part of the windows world and see if you can find something that changed around the start of your problems.
Tread warily because the wrong change here will cause havoc
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...istry-settings
Edited to add, have a look here
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...6-673ae0563e50
Quote:
Originally Posted by dave.king1
The thing is, my studio desktop pc is running the same OS as my laptop, same version (build 1809), and has the same cumulative updates on it as well, my Scarlett 2i2 works perfectly well when I plug it into one of the studio desktop pc's usb ports.
Yep, I totally get that but because of packaging and power requirements there will be differences in the lappy.
Motherboard, BIOS etc
I wish I could just say " look there " and you would find the answer but I can't, I will keep digging though the answer is out there
Quote:
Originally Posted by dave.king1
I just did some tests that I thought I would try, with my Scarlett 2i2 plugged into a spare usb port and my headphones plugged into it, I loaded-up one of the demo songs that comes with FL Studio 20.6.2 (the same demo song I've used for all my previous tests) and instead of playing it back, I exported it as a wav file then I imported the wav file back into FL Studio and dragged it onto the playlist and tried playing it back, the audio playback was crystal clear without any of the crackly distortion I had been experiencing, next I tried playing back the same wav file in windows media player, again the audio playback was crystal clear with none of the crackly distortion, so then I launched FL Studio and loaded up the same demo song (not the wav file) and listened to the audio playback, and now it is playing back with none of the crackly distortion, I have absolutely no idea what I did to fix it but if my ears aren't outright blatantly lying to me, it seems that the audio issue is fixed.
I've got absolutely no idea what I did to fix it, all I did was plug the Scarlett 2i2 into a spare usb port, did it fix itself?....I honestly don't know, I didn't do any tweaks to windows settings just prior to plugging in my Scarlett 2i2 literally a couple of minutes before doing the tests with the wav file.
i hope it decides to stay fixed.
Murphy strikes again
Quote:
Originally Posted by dave.king1
Possibly, but I swear that when the issue was manifesting itself, I wasn't dreaming, imagining, or hallucinating it, I guess we will never know what actually caused it in the first place.
Intermittent faults are the very worst kind but they are generally hardware related, zeros and ones either do or don't work and generally need to be meddled with to cause issuesQuote:
Originally Posted by DrNomis_44
Quote:
Originally Posted by dave.king1
Anyway, I'm glad and feeling relieved that it all fixed now, that means I'll be able to use my Acer laptop for live gigs, there's a group I joined on Facebook recently, called Darwin Doofers, and a mate of mine got me interested in doing some live DJ-ing at one of the parties organized by Darwin Doofers, could bring in some extra money for me, I've been wanting to learn how to put together DJ sets in Ableton Live, which I happen to have installed on my laptop, hence the reason why I wanted to get the 2i2 fixed.
Let me know if you need any Ableton guidance. I've been using it since version 1 both live and in the studio. General production, DJing and full live/hybrid electronic sets. It's now at V10 [emoji1] such a great piece if kit.Quote:
Originally Posted by DrNomis_44
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bakersdozen
Cheers mate, will do, I'm currently using Ableton Live 9.7.7 Standard 64 Bit on both my studio desktop pc and my Acer laptop, I've also got two midi controllers for it, a Novation Launchkey Mini, and a Novation Launchpad Mk II, I'm planning on buying a new 1Tb SSD drive to replace the 256Gb SSD drive that's currently installed in it, to give me more storage space.
I've also got FL Studio 20.6.2 Producer Edition, plus Reason 10 installed on the Acer laptop, and I'll be installing reaper plus Sundog song studio on it later on tonight, my usb audio interface is a Scarlett 2i2 2nd Generation, I'm also planning on maxing-out the ram in the Acer laptop this year cause I have a spare Ram slot available.
Seriously thinking of upgrading to Ableton 10 soon when I can afford it.
I agree, Ableton Live is a great Daw, the thing I like most about it is it's really good beatmatching, also the automation function is pretty easy to set up too.
I just bought a new VST plugin called Psychedelic Tunnel, it's a reverb plugin with a few extra things added, sounds great.
Just learn Ableton Live and its native FX and instruments inside and out and you will find you don't need to reach for other programs. For DJing , learn warping and warp modes thoroughly then get into scene management and the various different ways that trigger, launch and loop your audio files.
It could be a physical USB port issue, such as a damaged connection or a bad solder joint on the board.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Possible, it seems to be working fine now, I'm not getting that crackly distortion anymore.
After installing a new 1Tb M.2 SSD drive n my Acer laptop, and doing a complete clean install of Windows 10 64 Bit build 2004, I'm still getting the crackly distortion issue with my Scarlett 2i2 usb audio interface, I've tried installing the very latest driver from Focusrite, didn't fix the issue, tried un-installing it then installing an older driver, that didn't fix the issue either, tried a short usb lead with a ferrite bead on it, no luck, that didn't fix it, so my conclusion is that although Focusrite make great hardware, their software drivers are terrible.
Looks like I'm going to have to put money into buying a replacement usb audio interface from a different manufacturer.
The crackly distortion issue appears to be worse than it used to be, the only way to fix it is to set the sample-rate to 196kHz, and the buffer to 512, this gives me clean audio but high CPU usage, if I try lower settings, the CPU usage goes down, but the crackly distortion issue returns, increasing the buffer setting to 1024 (maximum) has no effect.
I'm starting to lose my patience with my Scarlett 2i2 2nd Gen usb audio interface.
Doc, just a quick one to check, you've not got a floating ground in the system have you? That can manifest as pops and clicks and can sometimes seem to clear up with long buffers or high sample rates.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blinddrew
I don't think I've got a floating-ground, I'm using my Scarlett 2i2 with my Acer laptop, funny thing is, it works perfectly well with my studio desktop pc when I plug it into a spare usb 2.0 port on the pc.
Which sounds like it's then being grounded via the USB port connection. So probably no firm ground connection via the laptop. Use a multimeter to check for ground continuity from the Scarlet to the ground connection on the laptop's PSU power plug.
Hmmmmm....I've got a decent digital multimeter, so I'll give that a go, I think the laptop's power supply has a 3-prong 240V AC plug on the end of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Update:
I just checked the short red usb lead, that came with my Scarlet 2i2 2nd gen usb audio interface, to see if there was continuity between the two ground-connections on the usb plugs, and I get a resistance reading that varies between about 100 ohms and open-circuit, I did the same check with a spare usb lead and I get a solid continuity beep with it, so I think the short red usb lead is no-good anymore.
I used my multimeter to check for continuity between the ground on the usb lead and the audio inputs of the 2i2 and there doesn't appear to be any continuity at all.
But the ground prong may not be connected.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Yep, checking that with my multimeter set to continuity check confirms that there's no continuity between the earth pin of the 3-pin 240V AC plug and the ground connection of the DC plug that plugs into my laptop's DC in socket.