New Acer Aspire laptop.

[DrNomis_44]

I'm using the Scarlett Solo v2 and have the most current updates on both laptop and PC and don't have any issues, given that it only appears on the laptop and only when the interface is plugged in I'm thinking there's an issue with the USB path in the laptop.

Try the lappy with another interface before spending on a new one.

USB 3 does cause RFI issues so best eliminate that as well, I got a new USB 3 external HD and it created all sorts of issues until I found where I could place it away from other USB connected stuff

The only other interface I have is a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40, but that needs to plug into a Firewire 400 port and my laptop doesn't have any Firewire 400 ports built in, I do however have an old Pandora PX5D guitar FX processor that can work as a usb audio interface, but there aren't any Windows 10 32 bit or 64 bit drivers for it as it is not supported, and has been discontinued by Korg.


I'm a bit at a loss as to why my 2i2 isn't working properly with my laptop when it works fine with my studio desktop pc, that suggests to me that the 2i2 itself is most likely fine and hasn't suffered any electrical damage, so my best guess is that it has to be something to do with the laptop, whether it's a hardware issue or a software issue....


And it used to work fine with my laptop before it stopped working properly last week, and then it caused a bluescreen, after my laptop recovered from the bluescreen, I used an app called Bluescreenview to look at the generated crash dump file, and it said that the Focusrite usb driver was implicated as being the cause of the bluescreen, ever since that happened the audio playback has been crackly and distorted.

[dave.king1]

I'm a bit at a loss as to why my 2i2 isn't working properly with my laptop when it works fine with my studio desktop pc, that suggests to me that the 2i2 itself is most likely fine and hasn't suffered any electrical damage, so my best guess is that it has to be something to do with the laptop, whether it's a hardware issue or a software issue....

And it used to work fine with my laptop before it stopped working properly last week, and then it caused a bluescreen.

Looks like you have narrowed it down to the laptop, so I'd be looking at when your USB / ASIO drivers were last updated and see if you can roll them back.

I'm guessing that you are using the headphone jack or line out on the Focusrite as the output to your sound system, what is the quality like when using the headphone jack of your laptop to provide the feed.

Try it with the 2i2 both connected and disconnected, if the sound is good then there is a problem in the USB area only, if it goes bad with the 2i2 connected then it looks like an A/D issue to me

[DrNomis_44]

Looks like you have narrowed it down to the laptop, so I'd be looking at when your USB / ASIO drivers were last updated and see if you can roll them back.

I'm guessing that you are using the headphone jack or line out on the Focusrite as the output to your sound system, what is the quality like when using the headphone jack of your laptop to provide the feed.

Try it with the 2i2 both connected and disconnected, if the sound is good then there is a problem in the USB area only, if it goes bad with the 2i2 connected then it looks like an A/D issue to me

Yep, during all the testing/troubleshooting, I either had my Audio Technica headphones plugged directly into the headphone socket on the front-panel of the 2i2, headphone out volume was at half-way, or my two 15 Watt Audioline powered monitors were plugged into the line-outs on the back-panel of the 2i2, in both cases the audio was crackly and distorted, I noticed that while playing back one of the demo songs in FL Studio 20, sometimes the audio was only slightly crackly and distorted, other times the crackle and distortion was very obvious, changing the ASIO buffer setting and sample-rate made no difference, I would try rolling-back the driver, but since I've done a complete re-format of the laptop's system SSD drive, and clean install of Windows 10, I can't do that, I tried installing the earliest driver I had but that made no difference.


One thing I did notice is that when I disconnected the 2i2 from the laptop and plugged the headphones directly into the laptop's headphone socket, I could get windows system sounds and youtube audio to playback clearly, when playing back audio from FL Studio 20, I had to use the FL Studio ASIO that came with FL Studio 20, I could get audio to play back cleanly with the headphones plugged into the laptop, if I set FL Studio ASIO to about 60ms, but that caused FL Studio 20 to run a bit sluggishly.


Could it be that the 2i2 drivers that Focusrite provide don't work too well with my laptop, and I'm a bit unlucky to find that out the hard way?

[dave.king1]

What happens to the sound in the headphones connected to the headphone jack on the lappy when the 2i2 is connected, choosing the native HD sound of course rather than ASIO

[DrNomis_44]

What happens to the sound in the headphones connected to the headphone jack on the lappy when the 2i2 is connected, choosing the native HD sound of course rather than ASIO

I just gave that a try, plugged my headphones directly into the laptop via the headphone socket, made sure I have the Realtek integrated audio selected as the main sound device, and plugged the 2i2 into a spare usb port, audio plays back clean with no crackling or distortion.

The only time there is crackling and distortion is when I'm using the 2i2 as the main audio device.

[dave.king1]

I just gave that a try, plugged my headphones directly into the laptop via the headphone socket, made sure I have the Realtek integrated audio selected as the main sound device, and plugged the 2i2 into a spare usb port, audio plays back clean with no crackling or distortion.

The only time there is crackling and distortion is when I'm using the 2i2 as the main audio device.

Given that the 2i2 works in your desktop PC and you've tried a number of different USB cables then it looks like the issue is in the USB component of the laptop

Lot's of windows driver stuff here https://www.google.com/search?source...4dUDCAc&uact=5

[blinddrew]

If it's working fine with your desktop, which probably has an IEC lead and is properly grounded, but not your laptop, which is probably a class 2 device with no ground, and you have nothing else connected with a solid ground, it's possible you're running an ungrounded system. That can cause all manner of clicks and pops.

[dave.king1]

That it was working on the laptop and then went noisy suggests that something has gone weird with one of the updates

[blinddrew]

Hmm. Thinking about it, it took me three attempts to get the latest version of mix control properly installed so it's worth double checking that. I.e. just because you've run the installer doesn't mean it's actually done the job.

[DrNomis_44]

If it's working fine with your desktop, which probably has an IEC lead and is properly grounded, but not your laptop, which is probably a class 2 device with no ground, and you have nothing else connected with a solid ground, it's possible you're running an ungrounded system. That can cause all manner of clicks and pops.

Yeah, but the thing is, it was working fine with my laptop up until last week and then for some very weird and obscure reason it caused a bluescreen and then it was noisy and started producing the crackly distorted sound issue.


Actually, the issue started occurring on the 20th of last month.

You know what?, it's looking like it's a driver issue that only occurs with my Acer laptop, the reason why I am now thinking that is because I tried installing the exact same 2i2 driver on my laptop that I've got installed on my desktop pc, it works fine on the desktop pc, but not on my laptop, wonder why that is so....hmmmmm....