Driver power state failure is something I just experienced for the first time. These days, a blue screen is extremely rare because I hardly use the Windows operating system. If it weren’t for music, I’d gladly do without Microsoft’s little gift to humanity.
Linux, as far as I remember, never ever chokes like that. So let’s look into what caused this. I haven’t booted into Windows 10 for a while because by default, ArcoLinux boots. Most of the time I do web design or 3D modeling with Blender so I hardly need Windows. But just today, I wanted to try the Harrison Mixbus DAW on Windows to see if there is a performance improvement or not. Usually, music programs run better on Windows and if so, I will keep W10 on my hard drive.
What happened and why did I get the Driver_Power_State_Failure
The workstation booted fine but when Opened Reaper which is another software program I use, it halted and displayed the error. If such a think would have happened in Linux, I simply kill the process and life goes on. Windows on the other hand is unable to self-correct and thus leaves me no option but to make a fist, open my middle finger and press the power button.
I learned the middle-finger restart trick back in 1999 while working for IBM Canada. A real tech always reboots Windows with the middle finger. Now that we know the basics, let’s reboot.
Troubleshooting Driver power state failure
There are a few ways to approach this but I will simply load Cubase AI which I got for free with my Steinberg audio interface.
Amazingly, loading Cubase failed because the eLicencer is not able to pull the serial off of the net as it did last week. Creativity has two enemies. Wives who start a sentence with “can you” and computers. I don’t now what writers block is. I can create 24/7 but much of my time is filled with fixing something or adding to my setup. Enough ranting, let’s move on.
Device Manager
The Device Manager is a sure indicator if something is wrong but in my case, nothing signals any driver issues or conflicts. This doesn’t surprise me because I keep my systems in good shape. Let’s try something else.
Studio One has a better error message and the culprit, as I expected, is the Steinberg audio interface. I think I know what is going on. A few months ago, Microsoft has updated Windows 10 and managed to introduce lag into the audio stream. A few days ago, I updated to the latest 1903? version but haven’t booted into Windows since.
The fix is in reinstalling the Steinberg USB drivers
I am sure that the recent Windows update (as of early August 2019) caused all of this mess so now it’s time to unplug the “toys” and adding them one by one.
Steve Jobs empowered creative people. I with the same were true for Mr. Gates. Final verdict. An hour lost for what? Sloppy work and low IQs.
I will update this post if something worth while happens but my hunch is that unplugging and setting up the audio interface will return chaos once more to business as usual. If you experience issues with Windows 10 please don’t ask. I am so far behind on my projects that I wish there were two of me. Thanks for reading.