If your inputs and/or outputs still don't seem to work, you can perform a simple test that verifies this one way or the other
Q10 Test
Direct Pro 24/96 or LX6 Test
Aark 24, 20/20+, 20/20 Test

PROBLEM: The Q10 is not coming through your "Computer Speakers"
SOLUTION: In order to hear the Q10, you need to have speakers or headphones plugged into output(s) on the Q10 breakout box. If your speaker are plugged into something other than the Q10, you won’t be able to hear it, due to them being plugged into something other than the Q10
Note: if the only available speakers happen to be “computer speakers” with a single 1/8” connection, you can still use these with the Q10. Use a 1/8” to ?” adapter to connect the speakers to the Q10 headphone jack.

PROBLEM: When Windows starts, the opening sound does not sound the way I'm accustomed to hearing it
SOLUTION: The Q10 is optimized for professional, high-resolution audio recording and playback. Most Windows system sounds are low resolution. On PCs intended for pro audio use, it’s best to disable Windows system sounds anyway.
To disable system sounds, go to the Windows Control Panel, and select “Sounds & Audio devices” (in some versions of windows, this menu may be called “Sounds & Multimedia” or “sounds”) Go to the SOUNDS tab, and under schemes, select “no sounds” Be sure it actually says “No Sounds”, as opposed to being blank.

PROBLEM: I'm not sure that my S/PDIF input/output is working
SOLUTION: Here is a simply way to verify your S/PDIF works.
On the back of the Q10 breakout box, connect the Q10 S/PDIF input to the Q10 S/PDIF output to create a loop. In the Q10 control panel, SOURCE SELECT can be set to anything that begins with INT.
Go to ROUTING, and assign TONE to output 7-S/PDIF L and output 8-S/PDIF R. Click OK to exit ROUTING.
If S/PDIF is working properly, the input meters should register around -12 dB.

PROBLEM: I can't hear audio CDs through the Q10.
SOLUTION: If you are a mac user, you will be unable to listen to audio CDs through the Q10, as the Q10 is an ASIO-only device
In Windows 2000/XP, be sure your CD-ROM drive is configured to support digital audio playback. Here’s how:
Go to the Windows Control Panel, select SYSTEM, go to the HARDWARE tab, click DEVICE MANAGER.
Open the DVD/CD-ROM drives branch, then double-click the drive you plan to play CDs through.
Go to the PROPERTIES tab, and be sure a checkmark is in “Enable digital CD audio for this CD-ROM device”. If this box is grayed out, then your CD-ROM does not support this feature, and is unable to play CDs through the Q10.

PROBLEM: I can't hear my MIDI device through the Q10
SOLUTION: Be sure the audio outputs of your MIDI device are attached to the Q10 MIDI inputs. Although MIDI is capable of transferring data, it is unable to transmit audio.
Note: If you are using a MIDI device to trigger a virtual instrument or softsynth, then there’s no need to attach the audio outputs

PROBLEM: There are clicks & pops in my audio
SOLUTION: If your software uses ASIO (Cubase, Sonar, etc), you may need to boost the ASIO buffer size. To do this, go to the Q10 control panel, click ADVANCED, go to the ASIO and DIRECTX tab, and use the slider to boost the ASIO buffer.
Also, your hard drive(s) may not be functioning at their proper speed. Even if a drive has excellent specs, there may be a system bottleneck preventing the drive from running at the speed it is capable of. There are several programs on the market capable of testing hard disk speed. One of our favorites is called fresh diagnose, and can be found at http://www.freshdevices.com/freshdiag.html This program will benchmark your drive, revealing what speed the drive is actually performing at. A drive should read and write at a minimum of 15 meg/s to work well with audio. Also, some computers using Via or Sis chipsets have poor PCI bus throughput, which could result in clicks and pops, especially at lower buffer sizes. To determine what chipset you have, consult the documentation supplied with your motherboard and/or computer.

PROBLEM: I'm a Mac user, and the Q10 does not appear in Sound Manager
SOLUTION: This is normal, as the Q10 Mac driver supports ASIO only.

PROBLEM: Can't hear MIDI tracks
SOLUTION: Although onboard synths are common on SoundBlaster and other consumer cards, Aardvark products, like most professional soundcards, do not have them. In order to hear MIDI tracks, you must trigger an external MIDI device, or use a SoundBlaster compatible card to generate the MIDI sounds, and route them to the Aardvark using standard audio cable.
If you think your MIDI inputs and outputs aren't working, perform our midi test.
Midi-Test

PROBLEM: Recorded instrument or microphone only comes out of one speaker during playback.
SOLUTION: This will happen if you’re try to record one input to a track, but the track is configured to record in Stereo. If you are only recoring one input, you are recording a mono track. To record in stereo, you need to record two inputs, one for the left and one for the right. A mono track can still be present in the left and right speakers, however. If you choose the proper SOURCE for your track, you’ll be able to pan it anywhere in the stereo image.

PROBLEM:Sample Rate keeps changing to 32 kHz
SOLUTION:More than likely, Windows is trying to play a 32 kHz system sound through our product. This can be fixed my disabling your windows system sounds. Go to START | SETTINGS | CONTROL PANEL select SOUNDS, and under "Schemes" select "no sounds"

PROBLEM:I can't hear windows systems sound through my Aardvark soundcard, or they sound odd.
SOLUTION:Our products are designed to play high resolution audio, and nothing less. Most Windows system sounds are low resolution, and tend to do more harm than good. It’s best to disable them when doing pro audio. Here's how: Go to START | SETTINGS | CONTROL PANEL select SOUNDS, and under "Schemes" select "no sounds"

PROBLEM: Windows runs very slow once I power up the machine.
SOLUTION: Most likely, it's your Windows system sounds. Disable them and things will most likely run smoother. Go to START | SETTINGS | CONTROL PANEL select SOUNDS, and under "Schemes" select "no sounds". If this does not help, be sure your PC does not have any components on our incompatibility list

PROBLEM: Aardvark display does not look right
SOLUTION: Here are several steps you can take to make sure the Aardvark control panel shows up on your monitor correctly. You may not have to perform all these steps to get things working. Try the steps in the order they are listed, and once things look fine, no need to continue!

All of these settings begin by going to your Windows Control Panel and selcting DISPLAY
1. On the SETTINGS tab, make sure your screen area is set to 800x600 or larger.
2. Also on the SETTINGS tab, make sure COLORS is set to "high color (16 bit)" or higher.
3. On the APPEARANCE tab, go to the ITEM dropdown menu, and select "Icon" and set the size to "32"
4. Also on the ITEM menu, select "Icon Spacing (horizontal)" and make sure the size is "50". Set "Icon Spacing (vertical)" to "50" as well.
5. On the "effects" tab, make sure there is no checkmark in "use large icons"
6. Ot the "settings" tab, go to "advanced" in the lower right. In this advanced menu, set Font Size: to "small fonts"

PROBLEM: Error message that reads: "The procedure entry point SMapLS could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll"
SOLUTION: If you get this message when opening the control panel on WindowsXP/2000 that means you have remnants of the Windows 98/ME driver on your system. To fix this, simply delete the file: C:\Program Files\Aardvark\Aarkthk.dll

PROBLEM: Effects on 24/96 and/or LX6 don't seem to work
SOLUTION: First, be sure you are not running at 96 kHz. All effects are disabled at this sample rate. Also, be sure the effects are not bypassed. If the BP button on the Direct Pro control panel is light green, the effects are bypassed. Click the BP button to toggle bypass on and off. The PS button on each effect is NOT the opposite of bypass, it is a menu where you can save and recall presets. Finally, be sure that in PATCHBAY, you have monitor L/R connected to all three outputs on the right.

PROBLEM: Can't save/load a Preset
SOLUTION: If you select a preset you want to load, you must click "Recall" before the preset will load. If you type the name of a new preset you'd like to save, be sure to click "save" before leaving the Presets menu.

PROBLEM: Noise at sample rates greater than 48kHZ
SOLUTION: When the Q10 was first released it only supported sampling rates up to 48kHz. Later, the hardware was upgraded to support higher rates of 96kHz and 88.2kHz. If you are experiencing an amount of noise at sample rates above 48kHz, that means your hardware was purchased before it was 96kHz compatible. If you would like to get your hardware upgraded to support these higher sampling rates, please contact our tech support department.

PROBLEM: Driver installation is interrupted by the following error "Cannot retrieve the currently selected device for the specified device information set. Error number: -14 The driver cannot be installed. Setup will now terminate."
SOLUTION: Most often, this is due to Windows permissions preventing the installer from continuing, and is fixed by the following:

Windows XP:
Go to the registry editor by going to START | RUN, type REGEDIT and click OK

Open the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder
Open the SYSTEM folder beneath it
Then the CurrentControlSet folder
Then the ENUM folder
Finally, the PCI folder

Look for any folders that begin with VEN_1057. For each of these folders, right click and go to PERMISSIONS, put a checkmark in to Allow Full control. Click OK, exit the registry editor and run the Aardvark installer.

Windows 2000:
Go to the registry editor by going to START | RUN, type REGEDT32 and click OK

Open the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder
Open the SYSTEM folder beneath it
Then the CurrentControlSet folder
Then the ENUM folder
Finally, the PCI folder

Look for any folders that begin with VEN_1057, and do the following for each instance: Highlight the folder, then go to SECURITY | PERMISSIONS and put a checkmark in to allow full control. Click OK, exit the registry editor and run the Aardvark installer.