M-Audio Testing has been investigating a matter where certain resource intensive applications require a heavier disk access can cause the audio engine to suffer as a result. Whether using on-board audio or ASIO with the FireWire 410, the results were the same.

If the CPU meter in the application peaked above 75% at any time, the computer would become unresponsive and audio would distort causing the application to become unstable.

Please be advised that laptops most commonly have hard drives that are slower than desktop drives and are used as memory caches when there is not enough physical RAM to host the applications needs. A 7200RPM drive is recommended for a multi-channel recording and playback.

Please check your system’s resource utilization and performance lie within the host applications minimum and recommended system requirements.