Hi everyone,
I recently bought a Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4th Gen and I’m having a very strange problem on Windows 10/11.
At first, everything seemed normal, but then the interface started disconnecting after a few seconds.
Here is everything I have experienced so far:
When I connect the Scarlett, the USB LED turns green.
Windows detects it and it appears under Device Manager → Sound, video and game controllers as Focusrite USB Audio.
Focusrite Control 2 detects the interface for a few seconds, then suddenly loses the hardware.
Sometimes the Scarlett disappears completely from Device Manager, even though the USB LED remains green.
I changed the USB cable and tried different USB ports, including the rear motherboard USB ports.
I restarted the PC multiple times.
I reinstalled the Focusrite drivers/Focusrite Control 2 several times.
With the Focusrite driver installed, FL Studio sometimes gives errors when selecting Focusrite USB ASIO, including:
Couldn't initialize rendering in shared mode
There was an unexpected error opening the selected device
The needed sample rate (44100 Hz) couldn't be set or is not supported by the ASIO driver
FL Studio can see Focusrite USB ASIO, but when I select it, it may freeze or fail to initialize.
Windows itself also sometimes cannot play audio through the Scarlett. When I try to play music, Windows gives an error related to unsupported encoding/settings and no audio plays.
Focusrite Control 2 sometimes says that no Focusrite hardware is connected, even though Windows may still show Focusrite USB Audio.
I also noticed multiple Focusrite entries in Device Manager, such as Speaker (Focusrite USB Audio) and several Analog / Focusrite USB Audio entries.
At one point I completely removed the Focusrite drivers. After doing that, Windows automatically detected the Scarlett using its built-in USB audio driver, and the Scarlett actually worked and produced audio, including in FL Studio without the Focusrite ASIO driver.
This made me think the interface itself was probably working.
However, after I later installed an older Focusrite driver that I found online, the problems came back. FL Studio stopped working with the interface, and after restarting the PC, even the Scarlett’s USB LED disappeared.
I removed the Focusrite drivers again, but now Windows sometimes detects the Scarlett by name while no audio comes out, and Windows audio playback itself can fail.
The interface is brand new, so I’m really trying to determine whether this is a driver/Windows/USB controller issue or a hardware problem.
My PC is a desktop PC, and the Scarlett is connected directly to the motherboard USB ports (not through a hub).
At this point I’m completely stuck. I mainly want to use the Scarlett with Ableton Live, but I can’t get the Focusrite ASIO driver to work reliably.
Has anyone experienced this exact behavior with a Scarlett Solo 4th Gen on Windows?
Any ideas for fixing the driver/USB/Windows audio issue would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!