System crash

I recently purchased a Focusrite scarlett 18i20, which I run with a USB connection on a windows 7 platform. I have the latest version of cubase installed. A very annoying thing has started to happen. During use at random times, cubase loses the focusrite completely, and I get no sound. The only fix seems to be to turn off the interface, shut down cubase and restart it after switching on the interface. The frequency with which it does this increases during the session, until I get blue screen.

I have windows 7 SP1 64bit, 8GB RAM , intel i5-3450 @ 3.10GHz, all drivers are up to date. The blue screen info is pasted below:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 2057

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 3b
BCP1: 00000000C0000005
BCP2: FFFFF8000347C4DE
BCP3: FFFFF8800B154BF0
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1

I have the dump files but can’t attach them apparently. I hope someone can help, its driving me crazy and really slowing my work down. many thanks

Sounds to me like a driver issue.
But could be a power management issue, make sure the USB ports are not powered down to save energy.
Try a different USB port.
Try a different USB cable.

Blue Screens are almost always a driver issue. I suggest you use something like Blue Screen View by Nirsoft to analyze your .DMP files. This should give you a clue as to what the real culprit is.

many thanks both - Driver issue would figure. My M audio Pro88 stopped working alltogether a week ago I’ll try out the nirosoft stuff

comes up with one driver issue Ntskrnl.exe in each of the crashes. Unsure what to do with it, but I also found a recommendation that some realtek devices cause this, having one installed I’ve disabled it. Just need to find out what the driver issue needs…

The 18i20 is a very stable performer normally, and i haven’t seen Cubase loosing it once.
BSoDs can be caused by poorly written device drivers, but that is very unlikely here since it is very well known soundcard from a very respected brand. Most probably it is malfunctioning hardware, such as faulty memory, power supply issues, overheating of components, or hardware running beyond its specification limits.
In your case it looks like there is something going on usb-related.
Are you sure that all cables are still in an adequate condition ? (more specific: the usb cable/connection)
You wouldn’t be the first one who is overlooking an obvious culprit.
Also: When booting the 18i20 locks itself through usb to the OS and there is an indicator for it on the soundcard. That one should always be on. No single interrupt.
What you discribe is that while working with cubase, the USB-signal towards the soundcard gets interupted by something on in an unpredictable way, and that the program looses focus is not more then a logical consequence.
No idea what else is being transmitted over the usb path, or what is using the same pipeline ? But imo that can also be something to look after.

kind regards,
R.

Hello,

@OP: can you put some minidumps in a .rar or .7z archive and attach it here?
The location is C:\Windows\minidumps

The NT kernel dll is a pretty common outcome for a BSOD, a debugger should come up with more specific information about the driver causing the issue.

Kind regards,

Hi Fabio, sorry for resuming a so old post, but I have the same problem with same audio interface (and with a Scarlett 6i6 too): I post here the crashdumps I have got both from a desktop assemblied PC and a laptop ASUS one (model N550J)
Hope you can help somehow to understand what driver is causing the issue…
Thanks a lot
crashdumps.zip (99.4 KB)