[pierremanu]

Hello

Before, thank you for your answer. I detected a bit of mistrust on your part, which I can understand. But you should know that I have been looking for 6 months, and that posting my question here was the last resort. I'm familiar with the DAW pro environment, I've been working with Ableton for a long time, and a little bit of Cubase, on the same machine we're talking about here.

Albee:

1-Are the clicks random or actually part of the audio wave?

1. the clicks are not part of the audio files, but appear randomly when listening (never in the same places).

2-What are the specs of the drive you are recording to?

2. I have tried various configurations, on an external SSD (USB 3), an external HD (7200 RPM USB3), on the same SSD as the OS (and PT), this has no influence on the result.

3-You didn't need to disable the on-board sound card in BIOS. What you do need to do is make sure that Windows is NOT using your interface as its default playback device(in Sound Properties)

3. I have seen cases in the past where the Realtek drivers interfered with the sound card's ASIO drivers.

4-Does the laptop have any standard USB ports? If it does, I would try connecting the interface that way(at least to see if it makes a difference)

4. yes, I have tried to go through these ports, but no difference

5-You mention SOME of the recommended tweaks, but you didn't mention disabling Power Management on all USB ports(sometimes aka "USB Root Hub")in Device Manager.

5. yes, indeed, I mentioned only a part of AVID's recommendations, but I actually followed them all. I also tried to remove ALL plug ins, but the problem persists.


Darryl Ramm:

What exact version of Pro Tools are you running?

What version of driver for your interface? And importantly, confirm you are not running ASIO4ALL.

this is version 2022.5 but the problem has been there from the beginning (Feb 2022) and it was an earlier version. The updates have not changed anything. In the meantime, I did a complete reinstallation of windows, in case the computer was delivered with a not clean installation (already seen..)
The driver is version 4.65.5, the latest one I think.
But same remark: there was an update since and I had the same problem before. I also have a 2i2 first generation with which I have exactly the same problem.
I don't have ASIO4ALL.

You also do not mention the most basic very relevant info like IO buffer size or sample rate you are running Pro Tools at, or if you have ignore errors checked... if so uncheck that, you want to see any AAE error. What is disk cache set to? with small test sessions just set that to 1GB or so and let the session fully load (disk cache meter turns green and has significant free space) before starting to do anything.

The buffer has been tested from 256 to 1024 in 44.1. No impact on the result.
The disk cache is set to "Normal" but from experience I doubt that the problem comes from there. But I will do the test for the sake of awareness.
The "ignore errors" box is unchecked.

Since the 6i8 has optical digital input...are you using that for anything? is that input set to be the clock source? if you are not using it disconnect anything connected there and make sure the clock source is set to internal in the 6i8.

There are standard troubleshooting directions under "help us help you" up the top of every DUC web page. starting with trashing prefs--always start there, and especially trouble shooting plugins by moving aaxplugin files out of the plugin folder (and I would trash prefs again after doing that)--always suspect plugins, yes even ones installed but not being used. There is lots of standard troubleshooting stuff you don't seem to have tried... or if you have you need to tell us.

I don't use (in this case) SPDIF, the sync is internal (in 44.1).
The preferences and plug ins have been removed.

Indeed, I forgot to tell you, but I really tried everything. I have read dozens of articles like "how to optimize windows 10 for audio, for pro tools" and all that goes with it.
The thing that really pisses me off is that I have NO problems with other DAWs.
Is spending most of your time fiddling with your computer part of the "classic" use of PT? (yes, there's a bit of irony in my question )

Thanks for taking the time to answer me and sorry for my incomplete question