Don't despair! I'm sure there's a good way to get it running how you intend. Definitely try to do the optimization, but if you still run into problems, maybe tech support can help you find something that might have been overlooked! But outside of tech support here, which Peter wrote is pretty swamped right now, I'd first just try some audio forums where people talk about optimization primarily, and really in-depth. The guides on IK's site are great, but it was on one of those optimization forums where someone just mentioned off the cuff that they use ProcessLasso, and that really was the biggest change for my computer. It feels to me just like too much is going on at once, and if you can shut down stuff that's unnecessary while you're processing audio, you might be able to get the computer acting right.
Also, one other thing I do is to disable Windows Search in Services before I play. That helps a lot!
Fight on for drop out free audio!
