Cubase freezes.

Sometimes when I am playing back a track Cubase freezes for about 10 seconds and I can’t do anything.The numbers on the transport panel stop, even though the music is still playing ie I can still hear it.It sounds like my external hard drive has ‘gone to sleep’ as you can suddenly hear it ‘start up’ then everything goes back to normal.
I’ve also had another problem (possibly related) when Cubase froze a message appeared, “J Bridge - Dispatcher opcode 14 failed (Waves L2/as78365011)”.
I’m using Artist 6 with an Acer 5742 laptop i5, 2.53Ghz, 8Gb RAM, Windows 7, 64bit with a M Audio Fast Track ultra interface and an Maxtor 500Gb (7200 rpm) external hard drive.
Could it be the external hard drive has a problem or something else?
Thanks

I see this sometimes as well when I hit play, and then go to open my VST instrument, which takes a few seconds. Are you doing anything when you see this? Is Windows contacting Windows update (do you have updates set to auto?) Do you have some other sw (av, malware) that may be either running some kind of check, or update?

14, or 19? Have you checked “I am getting a dispatcher 19 opcode error message” ?

Sounds like your drive could be going to sleep and causing the issue. What are your current power settings - are your drives going to sleep? If so, then change them, under Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options\Edit Plan Settings\Change Advances power settings and set them not to do so, see if this helps.

I get the same ‘freezes’ issue or the song stutter when i hit play, today as i just try out Cubase 6 64bit, never happen when using 32bit Cubase before… Think i should just go back to 32bit