Just an idea ...
If I remember right somebody from forum last recently told, that a BIOS upgrade cured his issues.
Do you use the latest BIOS version for your mainboard ?

Unfortunately the bios update didn't help

Still getting the very occasional dropout. It's very strange - I have no idea how to proceed.

LatencyMon runs for hours with no errors apart from page faults - says everything should be good for audio work.

The only thing I noticed was the the CPU meter in Cubase hit the red when the dropout occurs. Prior to and after the dropout the meter is very low, like 3%, under no apparent stress but something causes it to spike momentarily.

I've never had this issue before, 5+ years on this same system, with the Multiface so it's really odd that it started happening since switching to the UFX+.

Any ideas about how I could narrow this down would be really appreciated.

I don't really have any - the USB3 ports on this mobo are Asmedia 3.1 (unsupported) or the Asus 3.0 which another member here who has the same mobo has reported to be a bit iffy (he moved to TB which solved his issues)

I'm also committed to TB since I need the MADI I/O..

I see - might be worth investigating but it doesn't really make much sense since TB 'should' in theory offer slightly better performance and be less susceptible to driver/sw/hw conflicts.

Do you have any reason to suspect the TB driver/HW to be the issue here?

Thank you - that's good to know and I will of course try this route with a USB card if nothing else seems to work.

Having already invested in the recommended TB card and StarTech adapter I would really like to see there is any way to use them. TB should work from what I have read and supposedly has less issues than USB with shared bus/resources - but yeah, I will try USB if all else fails.

I have sent a mail to RME support to see if they have any ideas what might be happening.

I'm using a UFX+  and I previously had the same problem while using Cubase.  I set the ASIO guard in Cubase to "High" and it solved the problem.
Go to "Studio" at the top of the Cubase screen and then to "Studio Setup"  and look for "Asio Guard Level" in the open dialog box and set the level to "High".   This may help you with the drop out problem.

Wow - I somehow missed your post before now!

This is amazing - thank you! So you experienced the same sporadic dropouts too - just out of nowhere and not very often?

https://steinberg.help/cubase_pro_artis … ard_c.html

I just had a quick read about this ASIO guard and it looks like it introduces an extra buffer and will increase latency - it also says that it is not to be used for realtime-dependent signals or external effects and instruments. I'm already running with a 256 buffer so it feels wrong that the PC should need more than that to be stable - especially when the CPU is not being taxed at all. I have tested running a decent sized project down at the lowest 32 buffer and it seems to cope (albeit with a big CPU hike). The type of dropouts caused by buffer overruns don't seem to be the same as what is causing the dropouts i'm seeing.

https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=71712

ASIO guard also seems to be for playback tracks and not monitoring and realtime. I'm seeing the dropouts occur when there is no playback tracks - just playing realtime VST instruments. hmm..

I will try your suggestion and report back after a while to see how it goes

Thank you so much for this

Thanks RuffRider

I'm using the integrated GFX of the CPU so no card or drivers.

Did you experience the same type of sporadic dropouts - just out of nowhere and not very often and could be many hours between?

You might reference my recent post about the UFX+ and TB3 on PCs. I think you will not get stability or full functionality.  I could never get glitch-free audio nor get Asio Direct Monitoring to work.  With USB3, it's all fine but requires a very high quality cable.  Interestingly, my TB3 port works fine as a USB-C 3 port for the FF UFX+.

I sent my Startech adapter back to Amazon as well as the TB cables - all very expensive for something that didn't work.  I feel sort of OK that my TB3 card in the computer at least gives me a couple of USB-C style ports; pricey option, but they work and probably work as TB3 also, just not with the UFX+ and those adapters, Apple or Startech.

Good luck.

I have had good USB3 performance using the cable that came with the UFX+ and this extender:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00 … &psc=1

And also with this USB-B to USB-C cable both on USB3 and TB3 ports:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01 … &psc=1

I think shorter cables are better, but I needed to get about 9 feet to a computer room.  I tried probably 5 cables and those two above were the only ones that were reliable.

Apparently all TB3 ports also support USB3, but not all USB3 ports will do Thurnderbolt. I have not had a new computer in 12 years, so this is all new to me.

Chi - look at this thread on the Cubase forum.  It is from Cubase 9. The title of the thread is "Windows 10: audio dropouts on multi-core CPU setups"
Maybe some where in this thread you can find some insight into your problem.

steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=250&t=117319

Thanks again RuffRider - I will scour this thread to see if it unearths any solutions.

I still haven't had a chance to test your ASIO Guard settings but I will - I also have a USB-C/B cable coming tomorrow so that I can test with USB instead of TB too.

Just a quick update - Since I have been re-jigging so much of the studio I ended up upgrading from win7 to win10 and reinstalling everything.

No extensive testing done but so far no dropouts in Cubase with TB

Fingers crossed things will work out more stable with win10 and the newer TB drivers that go with that.