A simple solution would be to install Linux along side Windows.  I have a recent laptop (UEFI) and have 3 different OSs living happily in my disks.

If you only want to run Windows, the best thing would be to reinstall it from scratch (before that, don’t forget to download and save to a USB stick the essential drivers, specially the network card). Then you can control what software is to be  installed..

If you can’t, won’t  or don’t know how to reinstall it from scratch, the next best thing would be to uninstall all software non vital to music production ( I would also analyze the running services and disable any non essential ones).

Don’t forget to make a backup before making any intervention!

Tarek wrote:

Update: No solution was found, I returned the laptop. What I suspect is that there was some kind of an incompatibility between the laptop and the sound card. I'll know for sure when I get a new laptop.

If anybody has suggestions for something in the $1k range, hit me up.

It is just my opinion but,

I really, really! think it's a Windows problem.
Some weeks ago I tested a high level desktop pc (i7, 16Gb RAM, SSD disk, Windows 10 pro...), made and optimized for music by a French specialized company and there were still some dropouts, even with an RME AIO PCIe soundcard and even at a common setting (44,1Khz and 128 samples).
Despite all the optimization and despite the fact that the processor was at 5% of charge, there still were some Windows processes running unexpectedly that caused the processor or the disk go up to 85-90%.
I can not proof that but I am sure Windows is not efficient to manage realtime audio.

I have never had these kind of problems with Linux, even on a modest pc.

In fact, when I was at the store convincing them to return the laptop by proving through LatencyMon that a brand new laptop, with nothing on it and totally idle was showing "your machine is not able to handle real time audio processing", the guy downloaded LatencyMon on all the display laptops including the strongest of the Alienwares and still he got the same notification on all of them. He was baffled and I started suspecting LM.

I have never had these kind of problems with Linux, even on a modest pc.

And with the wifi, bluetooth and all the options activated together...

Update: No solution was found, I returned the laptop. What I suspect is that there was some kind of an incompatibility between the laptop and the sound card. I'll know for sure when I get a new laptop.

If anybody has suggestions for something in the $1k range, hit me up.

It is just my opinion but,

I really, really! think it's a Windows problem.
Some weeks ago I tested a high level desktop pc (i7, 16Gb RAM, SSD disk, Windows 10 pro...), made and optimized for music by a French specialized company and there were still some dropouts, even with an RME AIO PCIe soundcard and even at a common setting (44,1Khz and 128 samples).
Despite all the optimization and despite the fact that the processor was at 5% of charge, there still were some Windows processes running unexpectedly that caused the processor or the disk go up to 85-90%.
I can not proof that but I am sure Windows is not efficient to manage realtime audio.

I have never had these kind of problems with Linux, even on a modest pc.

Tarek wrote:

Hey guys, I just got a new Dell Inspiron i7-7500U with 8GB RAM specifically cause I'm recording soon and my old PC wasn't handling low latency whatsoever.

I'm stunned that even with this new computer (supposedly high performance) I'm still hearing clicks when I'm at 512 samples, let alone 256 and less.
I even got a message that the CPU is not strong enough to handle this and the sound was breaking!

I have a M-Audio M-track 2x2 audio interface.

Any ideas why would this be happening? Should the Audio Device Type be set on anything specific or is it because of the ASIO?
Or could it really be that the computer is not strong enough??

Any insight is highly appreciated.

Hi Tarek - I may have missed that this was recommended or that you did this already, but - have you considered checking to see if the 2x2 interface driver is up to date, and updating if not?

Update: No solution was found, I returned the laptop. What I suspect is that there was some kind of an incompatibility between the laptop and the sound card. I'll know for sure when I get a new laptop.

If anybody has suggestions for something in the $1k range, hit me up.

Hey guys, I just got a new Dell Inspiron i7-7500U with 8GB RAM specifically cause I'm recording soon and my old PC wasn't handling low latency whatsoever.

I'm stunned that even with this new computer (supposedly high performance) I'm still hearing clicks when I'm at 512 samples, let alone 256 and less.
I even got a message that the CPU is not strong enough to handle this and the sound was breaking!

I have a M-Audio M-track 2x2 audio interface.

Any ideas why would this be happening? Should the Audio Device Type be set on anything specific or is it because of the ASIO?
Or could it really be that the computer is not strong enough??

Any insight is highly appreciated.

Hi Tarek - I may have missed that this was recommended or that you did this already, but - have you considered checking to see if the 2x2 interface driver is up to date, and updating if not?

Yes, on Linux for example setting the scaling_governor from powersave to performance can increase PTQ's performance index about factor 3.

(here  i5-6200U, Blues Demo, D4 Daily Practice, 48 kHz, performance index 15 (with powersave) and 44 (with performance))

Cheers

Windows update service can cause some audio glitch, too.

mega big time.
thus, check Task Manager.

thats the first thing I would do.
if that does not turn up an obvious problem, I would be all for doing what Evil Dragon said: try another interface, Focusrite or RME.

If even after that you get clicks and pops, the problem is deeper somewhere in laptop's hardware and you'd be better off selling it and getting something that's not Dell. A Toshiba, for example, or Lenovo.