Lucky you. For me it s every time. Need to reboot the pc to get it to work.
Have switched to RME UCX II.
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It’s almost as though there’s a window of time you can turn it on and get it working, not before the system has been running for 5 minutes BUT not after it’s been going for 15.
Don’t want to derail the thread, but how is the RME? That’s my eventual choice. Their drivers are legendary for stability, so I’m assuming it’s rock solid.
Quick update that I love the MOTU UL MK5.
I did run into an issue with the drivers and OB, they don’t seem to get along, but with no drivers the MOTU is plenty fast for my use case (11ms roundtrip @48K 128 samples).
The amazing thing is that with all the outputs available on this unit I can get audio to all my gear that processes it (Iridium, Pro3, DT, DN, HXFX). This has been a game changer for me, and I spend a lot of time trying different routings. I’l have to make a YT video to show it, as it’s far cooler than I’m making it sound 
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I had the first version of the Ultralite. A manufacturing problem caused a group of units to be sent out with unreadable serial numbers. It was always a hassle trying to get drivers for those units because to download a driver you had to enter a serial number. MOTU handled it very badly. Customer service acted as though I was trying to get away with something. I don’t know what he thought I was going to do with driver software if I did not own a unit. It turned me off of ever buying another. Too bad. It was a good piece of hardware.
Have been using a UltraLite Mk3 since 2016.
Never let me down, no crash, not one issue.
Multiple outputs in this small form factor is god send indeed.
Plus the fact you can set it up with your gear, remove the USB plug from your laptop and enjoy the near 0 latency round trip at any given time. Need to plug it again in USB? Plug it in and here you go
DC coupled as well.
I finally bought a used UltraLite MK3, even with the negative things I’ve read about it on Windows. It’s been great and use it with modular gear to send CV through it to my hardware. But it does have the occasional/rare pops and cracks which scare the hell out of me when they happen. And I can’t find any rhyme or reason to it. Other than that, no issues. Lots of functionally and so many ins/outs for less than $200 used.
Might be worth a shot, from this link - Ultralite MK3 Audio Dropouts followed by High Pitch Noise - Page 3 - MOTUnation.com
I was working with Nick at MOTU support last week on this issue, which has been ongoing for me for quite a while. He provided a gem of insight that led me to check something on my Windows 8.1 machine. This also worked on my Windows 10 machine.
He said to not only use Programs and Features (formerly Add/Remove Programs) to remove the Motu Hardware program, but then to open the Device Manager and delete the drivers shown under “Audio Inputs and Outputs” at the top, opening that to show the list, and then right-clicking on each one and deleting it. (This goes faster if you position the Device Manager window near the middle of the screen so you aren’t having to move your mouse so far each time!) Then also delete the MOTU ones under “Sound, Video and Game Controllers”.
The thing is, I had done that several times before and reinstalled the driver/cuemix package many times already but to no avail. Then it hit me to check under the View menu in the Device Manager and select, “Show Hidden Devices.” Holy moly - there were like 80 old copies of the drivers sitting there in Audio Inputs and Outputs!
I hung up with Nick and started the laborious process of deleting every one of them. Then I restarted the computer and installed the software driver package, and VOILA! Windows programs using Windows Audio (the RT is another name for WASAPI, which is almost as good as ASIO under Windows 10, btw) did need higher buffer settings to be glitch free (512 or 1024) especially for YouTube video playback. But finally the MOTU was not losing sync, dropping out and giving me that high pitched noise!
So, the steps are (revised from an earlier post here by HotShot):
The proper way to reinstall drivers:
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Turn off the MOTU device and unconnected it from the PC
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Uninstall the MOTU Hardware program from windows control panel Programs and Features (formerly Add/Remove Programs)
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Open the Device Manager, drop-down the View menu and select, “Show Hidden Devices” and right-click and delete all instances of the MOTU driver elements found there, in both the “Audio Inputs and Outputs” section AND the MOTU ones under “Sound, Video and Game Controllers”.
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Restart the PC
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Install the driver software (currently MOTU Universal Audio Installer 4.0.5.9644)
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Restart the PC (again)
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When windows is fully loaded, reconnect the MOTU device, turn it on, and let the drivers install. This takes about a full minute to complete - watch the Device Manager Audio Inputs and Outputs field and you can see them popping back in. Your Windows Audio (from the speaker icon) should show all the devices listed there also now.
Done
An additional good practice is to set all the Windows Audio items in Playback Devices and Record Devices to the same bit rate and sample rate as you use for ASIO. (That is, as set in the MOTU audio console.)
This likely will not cure every person’s problems, but it sure cleared up mine after 7 weeks of trying everything else under the sun.
BTW - this also fixed the same issues I had with my 828 mk3 hybrid, which I now use daisychained via Firewire (Texas Instruments chipset in the FW card) to the Ultralite mk3 hybrid, almost doubling my inputs to my DAW. (Do not try using the two together via USB - it will not work.)
I’m giving a good look (running the trial) at Process Lasso as well to see if that makes things even more stable. (They are the folks who made the freebie that stopped your CPUs from parking - Thanks for that tip, Mourning6! - this software does that setting and more.) Audiophile users seem to love it. https://processlasso.bitsum.com/free-verses-pro/
Terry
[UPDATE Nov 15, 2016] There is no need to always re-install all your drivers. Very often, merely getting rid of the “ghost” drivers as explained in step 3 above is enough to end the confusion the PC seems to be having when deciding which driver is the current and legitimate one. The “ghost drivers” seem to be installed typically for other USB ports, but not always - merely improperly removing the drivers and reinstalling them will pile up your “ghosts” it appears.
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Wow, I’m surprised I never came across this post before. Thanks for sharing, off to device manager I go!
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Damn! Putting in work on the solution. I’ll have to try this, as the issue is annoying and a fix would be great. Thanks!
If you read the thread to the end on motunation he has a link to a script that does it automatically.
Ive not tried it tho.
Tempting… No replies to judge success rate from the original post… I want to try it but I’m afraid of running random scripts like that.
I just manually cleared the ghost drivers etc(steps in my post above). Hopefully it behaves itself going forward. There were quite a few old instances under hidden devices.
So far so good.
Has anyone actually gotten a mk5 yet? They seem sold out everywhere.
Read officially on a different forum that MOTU expect them to land again circa august
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Yup. Got an email from motu when I reached out after I posted this. Now we know!
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I got mine right after launch, about a year ago. Very happy with it so far, no complaints. Running on newest macOS.
Nice. Have you tried it with iOS yet?
No, I have not. But it is class compliant and has also had a few firmware updates since I got it, so it seems any bugs are being addressed I guess.
Not sure if this info is what you arre about to ask about, but here:
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