Question

My PC:

Motherboard AMD Asrock X570 Creator (Thunderbolt 3 native)

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3,6Ghz 32Mb AM4

32GB KINGSTON RAM

I have stability issues with Quantum 2626 and Windows 10. I am 99% sure this is a software problem as Quantum 2626 seems to work fine. The connection between the card and Windows 10 is fine all the time, there is no disconnection since the blue light of the presonus is on all the time, even Windows 10 detects sound because I can see the sound indicator moving. BUT, when doing some audio tasks in Windows like opening some youtube videos, Spotify ... the sound just disappears; the connection between the card and Windows still works fine, but there is no sound. Sometimes I hear a pop from my monitors and then I have to reset the presonus to get the sound back.

This doesn't happen when I open an audio player on the desktop, when I use the DAW for hours, or when I open YouTube for the first time (with any browser). It usually happens when I change the video on youtube or when I open Spotify, sometimes when I open the program, sometimes when I change the first song, it is very strange. Again, when this happens, the connection between the card and Windows seems to continue working fine and Windows continues to detect sound.

Tried installing all versions of the Thunderbolt driver and all versions of BIOS. I have tried modifying all possible options in the BIOS related to Thunderbolt. I have even tried swapping the Thunderbolt 3 cable for one of Apple's more expensive ones and there is no solution ... Has anyone experienced such issues between Windows 10 and Thunderbolt 3? Any solution you can think of? I no longer know what to test, I am convinced that the card works fine since as long as I do not do anything I have described I can use it perfectly for hours, both with DAW and playing music on the desktop.

Answer 1

Hey dude. I have the exact same setup, and the exact same problem. I built it this week, Youtube works first time, if you change video, you no longer get audio. But get this. If I open ableton, can do whatever I want, play videos, play youtube, spotify whatever. Similarly if I play a game, can have youtube on the background or spotify. It's when I open youtube or spotify on it's own. I only get 1 song and that's it. So weird, hope someone can help.

On another note I've only done about 14 hours testing so far but my Ableton latency is 6ms round trip total it's a real game changer for me. Plugins and even UAD stuff works. Oh I also set a custom curve for that motherboard fan because it sounded like there was a small child in my room screeming WEEEEEEEEE

Answer 2

K i found, from YouTube that if you go to universal control, then go to the input monitor thing (by clicking the bottom where the picture is), then press ADAT, you get another window with more inputs, and that's it. Everything now works (?!?!). Works for me and another YouTuber at least. This is completely nutty and needs explaining what's going on, I really hope someone reads this. But it's encouraging at least. When I restart my computer I have to do the same process.

Answer 3

Hey man! How curious ... I do not know if it is good or bad news that we have the same problem. I think a new driver / firmware optimization is needed for windows 10. I hope they can take it into account. I am in contact with the technical service and they told me to disable a windows option in the device that allows exclusive control over other programs. You also have to disable it in the DAW. But it doesn't work for me either.

As you comment, it is clearly a problem of "exclusive use / shared use between software". I turn on the PC, I open a music player, everything ok, I open YouTube and play a video, everything ok, I switch to another video, the sound disappears, I open Reaper or Studio One, the sound returns. What's going on people from Presonus?

On the other hand, yes, the operation of the card is spectacular, if you have a powerful PC as in our case, with 128 samples I get latencies of 1.4 ms...That's crazy. Well done Presonus, but please fix this!

Answer 4

I am having these same problems with my 2626 owner timeline! I wonder if this is just a windows problem adjusting to the newer thunderbolt 3 technology? It could be a Prresonus problem adjusting its thunderbolt technology to windows! It could be both! But one thing is clear the little man is being thrown under the bus in the name of any CEO's involved in this. One big problems is Corporate politics. If there are things that need to be done These big companies will not help one another solve issues that affect the little man. Why should microsoft spend money to help Presonus and vice versa! Somebody with know how knows about this issue and they are not disclosing! i am still having that audio dropout issue in the desktop windows enviroment! Sometimes the only thing that can get results is a class action suit. However you can't have a lawsuit unless you can identify the responsible party! Anyway, I am experiencing exactly the same thing you are

Answer 5

The issue is the exact same for me. Tried all kinds of fixes but no good. However, the temporary solution offered Nov 14, 2020 by grenvilleharrop1 (pressing the ADAT button in Universal Control) apparently works. What the...!?  It's a work-around at best. But it works! And completely irrational. I have to leave the ADAT screen on to make it work though. I hope PreSonus is listening. It seems this could be solved. It seems a shame that some folks might not find this fix and think badly of the Quantum. It's a fine piece of hardware.

Answer 6

Well, time to reneg on my first impression. Using the ADAT work-around worked beautifully today for many hours of uninterrupted listening bliss. However... suddenly my system went back to it's erratic sound dropouts.  A reboot of the Quantum 2626 restored the sound briefly, but alas, it went right back to problem as usual. Grrrr. I will reboot my computer and see what the results are.

Answer 7

I have a sort of clue for you guys. I was trying to figure out why I have to power cycle my Q2626 every time I reboot. I was messing around with the Thunderbolt settings in the BIOS. At some point, I seemed to have acquired the issue you are describing. I had stopped messing with it for the day and was just trying to listen to music. I had the "play the next youtube thing" and sound would disappear. Everything looked like it was working, just no sound. Power cycle the q2626 and sound would kick in again. Unfortunately I had upgraded Universal Control so now it wanted a firmware update and I could not get into it without agreeing to the update which I was not yet ready to do. So I couldn't test the "click rta" workaround to confirm if I had the exact same issue.

I know it's not much to go on, AND changing the BIOS settings was already mentioned, and I wish I could be more specific but during a lot of changes, Presonus support made me update EVERYTHING in my system, rather than actually troubleshoot the issue in any way. But at some point the only changes I made were in the BIOS TB settings and I suddenly had sound disappearing, then changed things back mostly and it went away. Something about approve or authenticate, look for usb to boot off of via the tb controller, "boot once" whatever that means actually solved my other issue turning it on, I can't remember everything I changed. This is a Gigabyte mb with a Titan Ridge add-on card iirc.

Answer 8

Hi, here the same issue (Windows 10 and Gigabyte 550 Vision) and after a few conversations with Presonus support still no luck in fixing the problem. The last update of Universal Control did not help either. In my case Presonus support also tried to change everything in my system instead of just fixing aparrent bug in their driver or software (or firmware).

They even wrote to me that oryginal Apple TB3 cable might not be so good for PC computer as for Apple and suggested to buy a new StarTech cable ($250!) Shame on you Presonus!

I understand that this could be the cable problem if I used some chineese, cheap cable that is not shielded properly or has to high voltage drops or has too high capacity... but my Apple cable costed almost 1/4 of Quantum interface and definately has a good quality.
On the other hand if Thunderbolt 3 interface would be so highly sensitive to cables then I would really question Presonus decision of choosing so unstable interface for Quantum... And then another question appears: why don't Presonus just add the right TB3 cable to Quantum to make sure that customers have no problems???

So I hope Presonus will quickly improve the software or firmware as I am starting to lose trust in the company's products. Stability of work is as important as the speed of operation or latency, so what's the benefit from low latency if the sound breaks every now and then and it is impossible to work normally on Presnus equipment!

Answer 9

Update today 09/16/2021 after the latest update of Universal Control Version 3.6.0.66460 and Firmware update 1.3.95 seems to have fixed this issue on my Rig. Now I am able to change from different media sources/players with no audio issues.  It would have been helpful if PreSonus published/listed the specific issues fixed in the software/firmware fix. Don't you think PreSonus???

Same issue here!  I don't believe this issue is related to Windows or BIOS specifically. Typically Youtube, Spotify, some mp3's, etc will cause the issue since those programs will attempt to change the bit depth and/or sample rate in Windows and Universal Control seems to ignores the change. In the case where the Quantum interface is installed Windows will act as a broker. Hence why you will still see the windows mixer showing audio activity but no sound. For DAW usage unchecking Exclusive Mode is good for attempts to prevent other audio programs from inadvertently stepping on your recordings.

When Windows is normally installed the sound may be set to a default of 16 bit, 44.1K samples depending on the sound system in your system. Thus minimal issues may occur when streaming via the internet or listening to audio loaded on your computer since most are at this level. When Presonus, TB, and drivers are installed, in most cases, I have observed Default Format settings will be locked (or greyed out) in the Windows Sound Advanced tab. Why??? This doesn't help the issue.

It is obvious Quantum 2626 TB unit is targeted for DAW-only use with sample rates from 44.1K and higher, however, sometimes your DAW will experience the same issue. In my view, there is no fix via typical user settings available for overall issues with sound streaming. Unless you choose to use another audio interface and manufacture. The folks at PreSonus should take ownership and look into the relationship of the cause with Microsoft (and perhaps Intel) in my opinion.

Answer 10

I am having this same problem, very unhappy with Presonus on this, and want a fix ASAP.

SETUP:

MB: ASUS Z390A (THUNDERBOLT EX3 CARD) DRIVER Version 1.41.957.0

INTEL I7 9700K

64GB CRUCIAL BALLISTIX RAM

My experience is that it is random. I also get crackles out of my left speaker occasionally. I will continue to try to tweak settings to fix and will update. I believe the problem is something is changing the buffer size, or sample rate when you switch between applications.

Answer 11

Hi all, I have exactly the same problem. Is there any solution coming soon? Or anyone solved the problem?

Answer 12

This interface is very unstable for me. I am having issues with it daily losing connection randomly, audio works on one application, but not another, having to reset multiple times after I turn it on etc. Considering getting rid of this interface due to serious stability issues.

Answer 13

The fix is to uncheck "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device." in sound settings. Here are detailed instructions:

https://solidstatelogic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360007770037-Hear-your-DAW-and-apps-at-the-same-time

Answer 14

Wow... The ADAT button trick by "grenvilleharrop1" bellow really worked...  I had the issue of every time I stopped Premiere Pro  or changed a webpage or YouTube video I would have to power cycle the Quantum 2626.  I shut off the allow devices to take exclusive control option and I gained some stability but that underlined issue was persistent.  I tried everything and just switching that button on had the immediate effect of 0 issues.  

Answer 15

I also have the same issue, and the change to the exclusive control setting doesn't help for me.
It happens with main out and/or headphones.

It happens when:

• A YouTube video finishes and a new one starts playing.
• A Tidal (both desktop app and web player) song finishes playing and a new one starts
• Sometimes when a Spotify (desktop app) song finishes and a new one starts (with Spotify it often will successfully play the next song)
• The above happens either when I choose a new song/video, or when it automatically moves to the next one.

Generally I can resolve it by switching sounds source and switching back again, but that is not an acceptable workaround.
I can also generally resolve it by switching the sample rate in universal control, then switching it back again.
So far the solution mentioned above with the ADAT settings seems to help, which is better then the previous two workarounds.
It does seem to indicate though that it's a software related issue though. One that should be fixable by PreSonus if they ever investigate it. 

My system is:

• ASRock Taichi X570 with the ASRock Thunderbolt 3 AIC card 
• AMD Ryzen 3700X
• Windows 10 Pro x64 - build 19042
• Quantum 2626 - Firmware v 1.3-91
• Universal Control - 3.5.2.65533 Win x64

Answer 16

check that You have  thunderbolt software in startup folder with windows,(you have to install this driver and software with Yours motherboard)  if not - put it. restart.  go to tray, right mouse click on thunderbolt icon, left mouse on Manage Approved Devices .  it will activate quantum and red light switching to blue. after what go to settings of thunderbolt software and check allow without user approval and create desktop icon. that it.

Answer 17

This problem appears to be fixed for me now after updating to Universal Control 3.6.0.66460 and Quantum 2626 firmware version 1.3-95.

I haven't been using it for long on the new firmware but for the few tests I've done it's fixed all the issues I was having previously (Spotify, Tidal & YouTube track change dropouts).

Answer 18

Still having these issues after MONTHS. PreSonus has the worst customer support I have ever tried to talk to.