So the fix for me on the audio side in Win 7/8 was to go into the Playback Devices (right click on speaker in the tray) on my computer and "Disable" the integrated sound card stuff and make sure only to leave the external card turned on.

An additional option is to uncheck "allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" & "give exclusive mode applications priority" in the Advanced tab. I did this to try and stop the web browsers from taking control of sound from any DAW app I have running. This had mixed results. I think the permanent solution for me here is to close browsers when running DAW and vice-versa.

I'll be checking MIDI next to see if that works any better with the integrated card disabled.




Steve

BIAB/RB 2022, Pro Tools 2020, Korg N5, JBL LSR 4328 Powered Monitors, AKG/Shure Mics.
PC: Win11 PRO, 4 TB M2 SSD, 2 TB HD, 128 GB Memory