OK - I finally managed to carve out enough time to try out most of the suggestions, which were excellent. Here's what I've come up with:

> System info: Windows 10 Version 1903 (build 18362.900). Lenovo G505.

> Tried with MGU file with only MIDI tracks, no realtracks and a Kontakt or IK Multimedia guitar instrument on Melody track, playing back a pretty busy recorded MIDI session.

> Dropouts in sound and pauses in playback are somewhat intermittent with the Kontakt guitar, and just about constant with the IK Multimedia Steel String guitar.

> Same behavior with either sound card - the built in AMD HD8400 and the generic Sabrent USB Audio card (it has no model #).

> Ran the DPC checker - it shows around 1000 microsecond latency (yellow range) most of the time, and will very rarely spike up to around 3000 (red).

> Tried ASIO4All Buffers maxed - no improvement.

> BIAB and the instruments are running from SSD drives - one in the PC and one external over a USB 3.0 interface.

> Ran a Windows perfmon with 1 second resolution and noted times when the audio cut out or playback paused, and captured CPU, System, Disk, Memory counters, and some other stuff. There are no clear smoking guns that correlate with the dropouts - there are some CPU spikes (up to 100%), some spikes in disk reads/writes, but they don't actually line up with the times of the events. Perhaps there is a buffer involved so that makes the perf counters lag or lead the event? The disk performance was solid - near 0% idle time, memory dropped to around 300 MB free, but never went below. CPU performance was analyzed in detail (C states, Context Switches, etc.), but nothing really jumped out at me, with the exception of "Exception Dispatches/Sec" which was significantly higher on the IK Multimedia playback vs. Kontakt. I might have missed something, but I'm pretty well versed in Perfmon.

> Regarding the Power Saving suggestion, I've tried turning off all of the Power Saving features (I know the Power Profiles) and running off AC, but no real change there. I checked the Processor Performance counters to look for high C2 states and %MHz reductions but did not see anything significant. Again, a deeper dive could be possible here, but probably not worth it. I looked for "Lenovo Intelligent Thermal Solution" but I don't see it on my system.

> I tried to run Geekbench 5 on my system - it installed but crashes immediately when launched. It's surprising because my system is pretty stable and that sort of crashing rarely happens with any applications.

I think the bottom line is that the drivers/sound card hardware are barely up to the task for some of the Kontakt instruments, and definitely not able to handle IK Multimedia Guitar, which I what I took the consensus on the responses.

**Note: I don't experience the same issues when using the IK Instruments Standalone player (just using the on-screen piano), so BIAB and its overhead may be a factor, or perhaps the VST is more demanding.

I'll post here if I find another sound card that works.

Thanks very much for the thorough and detailed recommendations. If anyone wants more detail feel free to message me, or post here if you feel it is appropriate.

Ed Z

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BIAB user since 2019
iPad Mini, Garageband for iOS, BIAB for Windows 2020 UltraPAK, Xtra Styles packs 6-9, Windows 10 Lenovo PC, Kontakt Player, SpitFire LABS, SampleTank 4 CS, some Soundfonts