I believe Defender is running as a background task on my computer. So, you are recommending I turn it off and see what happens?
On a parallel note, I am still confused as to which driver I should be using for my RME Fireface 800s? I have downloaded the driver that Jeff Petersen @ Synthax has recommended but maybe that one is problematic with GP?
I’ve had GP expose system issues that result in a BSOD, but the structure of Windows (as dhj said) would make it difficult for GP itself to be the cause of of a BSOD.
In my case, I had a CPU that was failing. I was running GP when the issues first started showing up, but statistically that’s just what I happen to run most of the time I’m using that machine. Over a few weeks the crashes became more frequent and eventually it became clear it was either a motherboard or processor problem. Replaced the processor, problems gone.
Regarding RME drivers for the Fireface, I’d say RME is the only correct source at Download the latest RME Audio Driver - rme-usa.com.
RME drivers tend to be very solid, especially for a “well seasoned” product like the Fireface 800. If there’s a driver problem, my suspicion would lean more toward whatever your underlying firewire driver is. Firewire and Windows never really got along perfectly, and some firewire devices don’t play well with some firewire-equipped motherboards or expansion cards. I have a firewire-based MOTU interface that I had to take some special care with to make sure it worked reliably with my system.
I have had several BSOD issues with GP but it always centers around either changing or unplugging the audio interface. I am sure this is in the interface drivers and not GP and of course I would never do that while performing!
The only issue I ever had while performing is when I accidently hit the laptop power button when reaching for the ESC key. Fortunately that was between songs and very near the end of a set so we took an early break, but it really sucked!
I cannot agree more. The last drivers can be found here for the 800 model too:
Now that you mention it, my problem could be my ancient Firewire card! I am going to replace it the first chance I get.
As far as RME drivers go, I just spoke with Jeff and he said, "use Version 3.125 for Windows 10 - Firewire and Fireface 800. I believe I am using that versions, but I will double-check that this evening.
I will also run memory diagnostics this evening.
It is just frustrating when my computer crashes every 1/2 hour … it takes the fun out of it and destroys my thought process along the way LOL!
Thanks for your help 
Have you tried to implement things that are listed in our “How to optimize windows for audio” guide?
Loads of useful and in-depth information with clear steps in there. Created by one of our own…
More here: FREE e-book by Deskew - Optimize your Windows PC for the stage!
Additionally, for troubleshooting, you can check:
For the most part nobody’s done much of anything with Firewire on Windows for more than a decade, so pretty much any card you get is going to be an ancient card using an ancient chipset.
In addition to that challenge, Windows 10 more or less forced a driver system on us where Windows will “phone home” to find the right drivers for a device that’s installed in a Windows 10 system. Usually this works great, but sometimes it’s horrible. A case in point where it is horrible is with firewire drivers.
There are two major firewire chipset providers: Texas Instruments and VIA. Within both of those you have multiple generations and multiple categories of firewire chips. Certain firewire devices are known not to play well with certain chipsets. I believe firewire audio in general, and RME specifically, has been reported to have problems with the TI X102200A chipset. With that case aside, many people said they had better luck with the TI chipsets than VIA chipsets.
Back to windows driver issues - some chipsets simply don’t work well with the drivers Windows 10 automatically downloads and installs. And by “don’t work well” I mean the unpredictable “stopped working” and “blue screen” type errors. So it wouldn’t surprise me at all if your card just doesn’t like the drivers Windows installed.
If you know the specific card you have you may still be able to get the old “legacy” drivers that were made for windows 8 or windows 7 or whatever the current windows was when the card was new.
If you do manage to identify the card and locate the drivers, there’s a process to go through to force windows 10 to use the “legacy” driver that actually work and stop using the Windows driver that it thinks is the right one.
Last time I went through all this was 2018 and it was a few hours of Google searching to find 10 year old conversations on scattered forums, then rolling the dice on what I thought was my best bet. It works for me, but it’s not made anymore, so I can’t exactly recommend it.
Probably the most useful advice I could give is:
look at the card that’s in your system now. Chances are the card isn’t the problem. It’s more likely the driver. Look at the main chip on the card and it will say either VIA in big letters, or it’ll have a picture of Texas on it. Look at the numbers on it, Google for it, and see if people say it needs “legacy drivers.” If you don’t know what you’re looking at, take a picture of it and post it here.
if you end up buying a new card, get a firewire 1394a card. You don’t benefit from the extra speed of 1394b unless you plan on daisy chaining a few audio interfaces together. A lot of cards have both. (1394a is firewire 400, 1394b is firewire 800). More people seemed to report more problems using 800 than 400 with Windows.
make sure any card you’re looking at will actually fit in an available slot on your PC. Basically, you have either the small PCIe slots, or the older and longer PCI slots. Chances are you want a PCIe card, with the small slot. Unless you’re on a 10 year old PC, then you probably have the long slots.
The difference is obvious when you look at the part or the card that inserts into the slot on your motherboard.
We will add a new feature request to fix Gig Performer so that it stays running when the power goes off.
For my own, everything is set to “do nothing”: this includes the power on/off and standby buttons, closing the cover, switching off the power supply,…
As a professional slacker I believe in the virtues of the do-nothing-function 
Couldn’t agree more.
That is good to know, it is definitely getting set to “Do Nothing” since I don’t use it anyway. On my HP there is about 1/4" between the power button and the ESC key. Small enough that my fat finger can easily hit both at once!
LOL… you know that feeling when everyone looks at you and says “Are you ready?” and your like “ughhh, I have a problem”
Me, shouting to the other band musicians:“You need to play a song without keyboards, NOW!”
Happened once in a while with my former live host, Brainspawn Forte on a Win7 laptop. Not with GP.
In my band, I shout the same thing out but just because I need to go to the bathroom😂
Yeah, if you wait for a GP crash to go to the bathroom, things can go wrong before 
Mainstage is unstable in my experience. GigPerformer never crashed. Mainstage has a huge CPU problem and GigPerformer does not have high CPU uage. This is a major difference. I cannot use Mainstage as it crashes even with the most powerful Macbook Pros. I never faced a crash with GigPerformer.
I had to abandon all Firewire devices with Windows 10 version 1903. It broke Firewire performance and caused constant dropouts.
I’ve never had GP cause a BSOD. I have had a crash due to a plugin that did not like patch change messages. I resolved that by simply creating different rackspaces and variants instead of using a widget to send patch change messages.
Use LatencyMon to determine if the computer is optimized for audio.
Has anyone experienced BSODs and identified the cause to be Iconnectivity’s MioXL?
