Scarlett 18i8 Keeps Dying, Any ideas?

[mbfrancis]

My new-ish Scarlett 18i6 is buggy as hell and I can't figure out why. Running R9.5 on a W7 laptop i7 2.7 GHz 16 GB ram. It keeps freezing mid operation and I have to unplug the USB and then re-select the Driver in Reason. Sometimes the audio dies and the clock starts running at a super slow speed when I press play. Other times it freezes and makes a sound somewhere between cracking and a machine gun, which doesn't stop until I unplug the USB. If I'm watching something on YouTube or playing a video file it happens more frequently.

Also, it crackles when it shouldn't - like I'm not running anything, just playing bass through an amp, and there's plenty of CPU.

Either way, I this is a bummer - I had years of rock solid loyal service from my Scarlett 8i6, and I love the form factor of the 18i6. I was even thinking of getting it modded by BLA. But not if it keeps dying. Could it be that my 8i6 was running earlier versions of Reaon and it's just resource load? Any one have any ideas? Thanks!