Many here use Focusrite equipment. Indeed, their website says they have made more recordings than any other interface (who actually knows this answer? Never mind, don't answer that. But no doubt they are widely used.).

In addition to the brand new 3rd generation Scarlett units, Focusrite has updated the drivers for the 2nd generation units (it appears the same drivers work for the 2nd and 3rd generation, at least for now). This includes modification to the USB driver as well.

Also, for the 18i20 first generation (the only first generation unit I checked), there is a new driver.

It is heartening to see Focusrite continue to develop drivers for their older units. Many companies (you know who they are) orphan perfectly good equipment way too early.

You can go here to download: https://customer.focusrite.com/support/downloads

Thanks for the info Matt! I'm still using my first generation 18i20 so I'll check it out.

Not good. Just upgraded the driver on my 1st generation and immediately got crackling and nothing I did would change it. Went back to MME and the problem went away. Not all updates are friendly.

Sorry to hear that. Maybe I'll wait since it works fine now.

Sorry to hear that but the NEW driver is NOT for Gen 1, only Gen 2 and 3

Larry

No.

There are several new drivers. Please read carefully to find the right one.

There is a new device driver and new USB driver for the first generation 18i20, which I have on my backup machine.

There are new drivers for the 2nd generation that also work on the brand-new 3rd generation units. I also have an 18i20 2nd generation on my main production machine.

Jcland, correct, not all updates are friendly. But the point of their new drivers seems to be to change the way the ASIO buffer selection is done, and that sounds like it might be your problem. Try their Support by email; it has always been excellent for me. This is what it says in the release notes:

Focusrite Notifier “Focusrite Notifier” replaces the “ASIO Control Panel”. It's a tray icon that runs in the Windows task bar.


When I installed the new driver on the 18i20 (first generation) it set the sample rate at 48K, then changed on its own to 44.1K. But it set the buffers at 256, which is too low for this older PC and I went into Settings in the Scarlett app to raise it to 512.

Well I updated about 3 weeks ago when they came out with a new driver and it worked just fine.

The driver I downloaded today is Windows: USB Driver 4.63.23

That is what the pull-down menu gave me for my input of a Scarlett 2i4

If I put in for a Scarlett 2I4 2nd or 3rd generation, it gives me the same download package.

That leads me to only 2 logical conclusions:

1. The download is correct but does not work with my 1st generations 2i4

or

2. Their Website is wrong and is giving me the wrong package to download.

Not sure where you are getting your information from Larry but the release notes clearly state:

This release supports the following devices:
- 3rd Generation Scarlett Range
- 2nd Generation Scarlett Range
- 1st Generation Scarlett Range
- Clarett USB Range
- iTrack Solo
- Saffire 6 USB 2.0

Right. There is a version dot 10 driver that first appeared on the beta driver site. It’s worked fine for me. The newest driver is for USB.

My error

I had already performed this update on my Gen 2 gear a few hours before you initially posted yesterday (actually I was going to post here but you beat me) then when I went back to look today at Gen 1, on quick look, without reading release notes (Homer say DOH! Larry - RTFM!) it looked a "version" older.


Larry

You know, Larry, they are not making it easy.

I wrote to Focusrite Support and suggested they put a date on each release. So simple. Checking release numbers that differ by a digit in the thousandths decimal position is hardly clear.

Over the last few weeks, I was startled to find first a Beta driver, then a regular update, then these new drivers in conjunction with the release of a whole new line of products. If someone doesn't overlay a good driver with the wrong one, I'll be mighty surprised.

Blue Screen of Death again
I tried the beta on my 1st gen 8i6 a while back with similar results, but this time I could not remove the beast. Unfortunately the dump files were lost as I had to reinstall windows, so I can't send them to focusrite for analysis.
I will never update my focusrite drivers again. I will live with the occasional sound dropout.
For anyone interested I am using windows 7 64bit and my card is a 1st generation Scarlett 8i6.
if youa have the same configuration, be warned.

That’s too bad, Sinbad.

So far, those having problems seem to have Windows 7 in common.

If anyone gets in a similar situation and want to uninstall a Focusrite driver, write to their Support. They will give you the procedure to remove the driver fully. I recall it’s about 10 steps. No need to reinstall Windows.

Unfortunately as soon as I hit the "uninstall" button in the focusrite folder I got the BOD. I managed to restart windows ok but as I tried then to delete the program in windows system settings I got a complete crash. I lost my boot sector and couldn't return to an earlier configuration nor restore the disc image I had. After many failed attempts I gave up and did a fresh install. I am still searching for the many apps and plugins I have. Still I can streamline my system a bit and get rid of all those plugins I never use.

Not much help from focusrite, There reply to a ticket was " You shouldn't have problems with the new drivers in Win 7",
And in reply to my request that they include legacy drivers on their site, " We are not allowed to send out old drivers"
I will definitely remove focusrite frm any future purchases.

have you tried unplugging the USB cable on your Focusrtie unit before trying uninstall? Have you tried to uninstall (again with USB disconnected) from the WIndows 7 Control Panel remove programs menu?

I'm up and running again after two days of windows updates, reinstalling software, plugins, etc. I am not about to try another focusrite driver.
Luckily I had the previous version on an external drive so I will stick with that. I find it strange that focusrite don't have legacy drivers on their website, and the German rep said that they were not allowed to issue them. Not very helpful.

Guys, Can someone please help?! I'd like to try rolling back to the older Focusrite driver. Does ANYONE have it for a 2nd gen 2i2? I'm having a terribly frustrating issue with my audio. The system worked perfectly on my retired 64-bit Windows 10 PC. Mixcraft DAW-Scarlett 2i2 2nd Gen.

On the new PC, constant 'breaks' in the connection between Windows and the Scarlett. It's not the DAW, Windows drops all audio. And, the Scarlett is currently the only enabled audio device. I hate to bomb you w/ a diatribe but I'm going to post what I posted at another forum. I've done everything to eliminate this nightmare. I'm fairly certain it's the 2i2, even more specifically the driver. Like a few of you here, I am screwed.

If Focusrite won't give me an old driver as someone has said, what will I do?! The old UI was black with a touch of red and gray. The current one is a monotone gray, and I believe bad. They are not available for chat 24/7 as they claim. Thank you!! Damn, damn, damn.

"...I've posted about an issue I'm experiencing with the 2i2 on my DAW's forum, and have written Focusrite as well. I saw some old threads citing similar problems. The 2i2 worked flawlessly with my Acoustica Mixcraft DAW on the older 64-bit Windows 10 machine. I installed everything on a new i9 Dell about a month ago and have had audio peskiness ever since. Whether it's the Focusrite, the cable, the USB hubs, the PC, I can't say yet.

Windows is losing connection to the audio interface. Very intermittantly, upon playback in the DAW, the audio will garble for a second or two, before it drops out. I've realized it's not the DAW per se, because from that point, Windows itself sometimes has no audio. At times, just reloading the project in the DAW will right it, other times I need to pull the USB plug and reinsert to reestablish audio in a general sense.

It's odd because I've made sure to optimize the new PC per Sweetwater's excellent recommendations. The computer is not sleeping at all, nor are any of the USB ports. All power management for the USB ports is disabled, I've unchecked 'Allow devices to have exclusive control...' too. I've even gone so far as to disable all the other audio devices to avoid confusion, and there are several! So, during that test the 2i2 was all that was available to Windows but I still experienced the very intermittent stutters. Sometimes, merely walking away for a while, the connection breaks. I've moved to another USB port and will observe that. I've also tried plugged directly in to USB, and also into an AC-powered hub.

The only thing I notice different is that the UI of the Scarlett's driver is different than what was on the old machine. The former was black with red, and the current one I installed from Focusrite is a generic light-gray. I'll wait to see what they say about perhaps trying a rolled-back version. Focusrite says to stick with USB 2.0 and that's what I've done. I saw a couple of articles that stated that USB 3.0 should offer no advantage and that it could actually be tricker depending on what the manufacturer's policy is on 2.0 devices plugged in 3.0 ports.

One wrench I'll throw into the works- a couple of times a day, the Dell seems to freeze up from 1-5 seconds, separate and apart from anything audio related. The cursor will freeze. I've even seen the video wink out once. I watch the Task Manager for any clues and have uninstalled some unnecessary things and try to keep installed programs minimal. Of course the Task Manager reveals that there are myriad things always running in the background. So, there could be an underlying cause. The PC and most peripherals are on a UPS so that would alert me to power interruptions or significant dips..."

Warren,

I agreed that it was likely a driver issue until the beginning of your last paragraph.

That should not be happening. At all. Contact Dell. They have a problem with your unit.

The good news is Dell computers have excellent hardware diagnostic routines built-in. The bad news is you need to get them involved so they can coordinate with you what tasks they need to be performed to so they can identify and resolve their issue.

Right Jim, but I am sure there's something specific to the audio and the interface. The cursor freeze happens extremely intermittently (1-2 times daily) for a couple of seconds and recovers, and just so we're on the same page, that is separate and apart from working with Audio. I generally see it when typing, and for all I know, it could be Yahoo Mail's ads trying to get through AdBlocker Plus. I would love to get my hands on the older Scarlett driver. Thanks all.

I did find an old one in my windows backup (before upgrading to W10) .. an older Focusrite USB driver dated 2016
The only Focusrite I owned back then was a 2i2, other than that yer on yer own whether to try it.

It has been here since 2016, so I only assume this is what you are after
http://masteringmatters.com/stuff/focusrite-usb-2-driver-2.5.1.zip

//backups are wonderful things

All that said, my gut says it is USB interrupts caused by *something*
I'd be looking for that Dell model in searches for USB issue, or Audio issue .. at least if this doesn't help.
I suppose it's possible something in the Dell simply doesn't play nice with the current drivers.
That's the only thing I found that may be what you are looking for.

rharv, you are as always, incredible, unfortunately, though the 2016 driver produces Windows Audio, the DAW doesn't see it and the Focusrite interface opens with the error message says that no Focusrite device is found. In addition to the measures I described in the original post, I just disabled a couple of the other audio devices at startup per this article https://www.dell.com/community/XPS-Desktops/XPS-8930-no-audio-after-wake-or-power-up/td-p/7621414. That shouldn't matter since I don't normally power down and I've tested when they were already disabled, which I've done again. I'll keep you posted. I have to roll forward to the current driver. If anyone else has the last most recent, please send it my way!

Warren, I'll admit I didn't read your post several times, which is what would be required to take it all in. But I will offer a few things:

1) I never had a 2i2. I've used 4i4, 8i8, and two 18i20s, a first and second generation. One thing those all have in common that yours does not is the separate mixing/routing software. To say this in another way, the 2i2 is simpler and should pose fewer problems.

2) No Focusrite beta drivers apply here. They haven't done anything of substance there since 2017.

3) I completely agree with Jim that your first task is to solve the freezes and that your Focusrite or its drivers may not be at fault at all.

4) there are some standard things you should rule out, such as background processes that spike and cause your freezes. I strongly recommend you do these things, in this order:

a. download and run Malwarebytes
b. download and run either DPC Latency Checker or Performance Monitor. Look for spikes from background processes.
c. check on your new PC that you do not have the HD Audio running in Device Manager, and if you do, disable it.
d. download and run Memtest all night.

If all that checks out, only then would I begin to think that the Focusrite is the problem.

Matt

Further thought. While I was posting, you posted again with that link. The problem statement there was very poor: we don't know anything about what audio device that person was using. The person replying was closer to the mark. One thing he/she did not mention is, go into the BIOS and Disable Fast Boot.

Easily tested and eliminated. Disable the Adblocker and try your music again. Even disable the internet connection so Yahoo Mail isn't polling for new mail. Test with only your DAW running and see what happens.

Also, you said Dell. Do you regularly run Dell Update to scan for new hardware drivers? I agree with RHarv. This just doesn't seem to be interface related.

Did anything reset your Windows Audio settings and move it off your interface as the default? If so, when you correct the audio paths did that fix it?

Is this a well powered computer? i5 or better? How much RAM? I run a 2i4 on this computer with only an i3 and 8 GB of RAM and have no issues. The Pro Tools computer is an i7 with 16 GB of RAM because Pro Tools is a pig.

Warren,

What were the hardware diagnostic routine results?

Guys, I am still struggling with audio dropouts with the new Dell XPS 8930. It's definitely not the Focusrite Scarlett or its drivers as Matt Finley knew it wasn't! I had to take it out of the mix to continue to diagnose the issue, and there's nothing wrong with the Scarlett. CeeBee, Jack Cole at Focusrite has been great. I don't know why you and one other had bad experiences with them. He saw my posts at SOS and grabbed my complaint ticket, provided an older driver, and has continued to work with me.

I've seen known issues online with Windows ISR dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation, DPC Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation, and Hard Pagefaults- msmpeng.exe Microsoft Corporation, and that's what LatMon shows as well. I have to believe Mixcraft Pro Studio 9 is fine because it worked so well on the old Windows 10 machine, but there's something going on between it and this PC. The BIOS, Firmware, and OS, as well as a few other devices have all been updated. Very frustrated! Thanks all!

I once had a Dell desktop that had a file that would launch itself at some interval and make whatever audio was playing stutter. It turned out to be some superfluous Dell file and once I removed it the problem stopped. If I could only remember what file it was.

Have you attacked it from the Dell angle WITH Dell? I think I just Google searched some combination of audio, stutter, Dell.... and after weeks found the answer. Sadly it was so long ago and that laptop has long been donated so I don't remember.

Eddie, I just posted to the Dell Community https://www.dell.com/community/XPS-Desktops/AUDIO-etc-ISSUES-w-NEW-XPS-8930/m-p/7682811#M53429. Someone answered with this- "The best option is to install another drive (hard or SSD) and make a dual boot system. One is the original Dell and the second is for recording and only has Windows 10, needed device drivers (that Windows usually installs) and the DAW software and device drivers. I had to do this on a Dell Inspiron 15 laptop for my recording studio. No matter what I did to the Dell installation I still had some audio dropouts. Making the dual boot system resolved the problem and the Resplendence "Latency Mon" program can run for hours without showing a hit. If I want the laptop for regular PC use I boot to the Dell image, if I want to record (or some other DAW function) I boot to the recording image."

Warren,

I bet I know the answer to your issue and how to fix it.

The issue is caused by a Dell utility application. The application runs a service called "Dell SupportAssist Remediation". This service is supposed to scan the system on startup for hardware issues and auto generate a support ticket if any hardware issues are found and the unit is within warranty. Use task manager to disable the service and your drop out issue will go away.

+++ HERE +++ is a thread in another music forum that discusses latency and dropouts in some detail.

Interesting that the Dell user forum doesn't know about this. If this works for you, you may be able to report the solution in the Dell user forum. That might help a lot of other Dell users that also are musicians. Your report might also alert Dell Support of the issue with their application so they can pass it along to the development team.

Jim Fogle, thanks, I did get that advice earlier and it is now disabled. I've also disabled one of the two video cards, wireless adapter, Bluetooth, lots of stuff. As I also mentioned, the BIOS, Firmware, and OS, as well as a few other devices have all been updated. LatMon shows 2 graphics drivers- still dxgkrnl.sys (DirectX), plus nvlddmkm.sys (NVIDIA) to be the latent ones. I wanted to disable the NVIDIA as it's supposed to be bloaty, but I had to disable the Intel UHD 630 (excellent card too) because the NVIDIA suported the 2 monitors on DVI and HDMI. The DAW is now looping OK for two hours w/ no drops, but LatMon shows these two drivers in the red after about an hour. Some say that the Focusrite drivers of the interface are more fussy with Windows than others? Worked great on the old PC and I'd hate to have to replace the Scarlett if Windows doesn't improve.

Who says that, and what exactly did they say? And do you mean others to mean Mac computers or Linux? Or manufacturers other than Focusrite? I have not heard anything like this and would like to know more.

I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 1st gen interface running on Win 10, and has worked well for years. I recently had a problem with PowerTracks "not responding" for a while when working with large multiple track files, then resuming the task after about 10 - 20 seconds. I thought it might be an out of date driver (I was using the original version) and found the latest update on their website. I downloaded and installed the new driver for 1st gen 2i4. Up until then, I had the input option of 1/2 stereo and could record from a single mic to create a "stereo" recording on a single stereo track, i.e. in L and R channels. After the upgrade, I could only record from a mic in the LH channel. the input option had changed to 1 & 2 Analogue.
I uninstalled the new drivers and, fortunately, had the original drivers stored in archive. I re-installed the original drivers, but I still can't get back to recording on both channels. I know that it is usual to only record on the LH channel, but I would prefer to regain the ability to have both channels recording.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

I don’t have that model and don’t know about recording on both channels, but I have a question. How did you uninstall the driver? The reason I ask is that Focusrite Support once gave me a detailed ten or so step process to uninstall a driver.

I went into Device Manager, clicked on properties, went to the driver tab and chose "Uninstall Driver". It seemed to work as my interface wouldn't work until I installed the new drivers. Hope this helps.

That's good. Yes, that's the normal way. Some years ago they gave me a different process, and I hope it's no longer needed.

Do you still have the one-channel issue?

Yes, the one channel issue is still there. I do a lot of audio mixing for a virtual choir at the moment and, if vocal tracks are all on the LH channel, I have to use Audacity to convert them to mono tracks so that I can pan the track to put the SATB voice in the right place on the stereo spectrum. Before the Scarlett driver upgrade, this was not a problem as, if I set the PT track to "audio stereo" the voice recording was in stereo.

This is not a PT problem as I have the same issue now when recording vocals on Ableton Live 10 and in Audacity. It is obviously the driver upgrade where the problem exists.