crackling and drop outs/ syncing issue?

[django6]

I have an octane preamp running into lightbridge and protools m-powered is set to sync off of the octane. This is how the technical support at protools helped me configure the system when I first purchased it. It did seem to work initially, but after a half hour or so of recording I think something happens where it looses sync (I'm not sure of the terminology here) but I end up getting a "bzzt" sound and a drop out for a second or two. When that has happened I can just shut down protools, the interface and the octane and restart everything and it will sync just fine until it does it again. I did a session today with 8 mics and some of the songs have a crackling sound throughout which is different than the previous sound but maybe related. The support person mentioned some issue with using the octane as a slave so I'm wondering if I should reconfigure everything so it works more consistently. Can someone tell me what I need to do or refer me to an area in the manual where i can learn how to get the system configured properly?