Problems - Reaper 3.11 (Direct Sound Audio System)

It's my first day with Reaper. (I have been using Audacity DAW for years.) Reaper is showing some very strange problems. What on earth am I doing wrong? (Or is the installation messed up?) Installed Reaper 3.11 - OK that was easy. Downloaded the 3.11 User Guide pdf. Guitar is plugged into Digitech RP250 effects box -> USB connection to PC. Here we go .....! Now reading the User Guide and trying some recording. Have read the sections 1.1 to 2.10 and 3.1 to 3.10. Problem 1) First few tracks recorded - apparently nothing was being recorded for the first ten to fifteen seconds. Cursor is moving in track display area but no waveform showing. Then recorded waveform pops into view at time=0 position, a long way behind the moving cursor, and shows currently played waveform being recorded. On later recordings this dead-time gap has increased to about 49 seconds. Playback shows that all the dead-time input has been lost. Dragging any recorded track to the right shows nothing to the left of time=0. Problem 2) Mostly, I find nothing is recorded. About one attempt in four Reaper does record, but as problem 1 above. In all other recording attempts the cursor moves but no track is laid down. I am doing the basic stuff: Create new track, arm track for recording, and clicking the record button on the transport bar. Also, the mixer and the track level meter show that Reaper IS receiving an input signal on all attempts at recording. Problem 3) This one is just a bit too weird! Makes me wonder if my Reaper installation is all tangled. Reaper is shut down and I am viewing my web browser (Firefox) now, to enter this thread in the forum. Surprised to see a new Bookmark (ie Shortcut) icon has been added to my web browser bookmarks toolbar. It is named REAPER.lnk. Clicking on that icon, Firefox displays a choice of opening or saving the file, apparently it is in C:\Documents and Settings\myusername\desktop. How can installing Reaper have done this? The file does not show in Windows Exporer, and it's not the basic desktop Windows shortcut icon created by Reaper to run the Reaper application. (I have dragged that Reaper desktop shortcut into a desktop folder, and the mysterious REAPER.lnk web browser "bookmark" persists in Firefox.)

never had either of these issues after many updates. i'll grab the latest and see what happens.

yea, nothing like that here after installing the latest. did you get the installer from here?

What driver model are you using with your interface?

For problems 1 and 2, have you selected the Digitech ASIO driver as the audio system (click the audio details in the upper right to open the audio preferences)? For problem 3, my guess would be you accidentally dragged the Reaper desktop shortcut into your browser.

Problem 3: Uh, this is NOT normal Reaper behavior. No internet shortcuts are installed. Make sure you are getting all downloads from this site.

Audio System & Devices - resolved problem 

OK it's fixed. Thanks for all the help and suggestions. As prompted, I have now tried changing Reaper preferences to select an ASIO driver, and also tested all the other Audio System & Devices options for my Digitech RP250\USB interface into Reaper. No crashes yet today with the ASIO driver, and the long recording start delay problem is found to occur only in one of the non-ASIO options. (Of course that had to be the one option I picked yesterday - Murphy's Law.) For interest and future reference, here are today's test results, all adjusted by Ctrl-P or menus Options-Preferences-Device. There are only two that work correctly on my system, but one is enough! Non ASIO options: ----------------- Audio System selected ......... Input & Output Devices displayed WDM Kernel Streaming .......... Digitech USB Audio 1-2 Device ---> no audio input signal detected. Recording: cursor stuck at T=0. Direct Sound .................. Digitech USB 1-2 In/Out ---> audio input signal is detected. Recording lags behind cursor, ---> delay increasing with each track 6sec -> 38sec -> 42sec .. etc! Wave Out ...................... Digitech USB 1-2 In/Out ---> audio input signal is detected. Recording OK in step with cursor OKOKOK! Dummy Audio ................... -- no devices listed ---> no audio input signal detected ASIO Audio System ----------------- Options structure is slightly different here After selecting ASIO Audio System then select driver (=RP250ASIO in my case, because the Digitech RP250 is my external USB device) Then accept default values for Inputs First 1:USB In 1 ........Last 2:USB In 2 Outputs First 1:USB Out 1 ........Last 2:USB Out 2 ----> audio input signal is detected. Recording OK in step with cursor OKOKOK! Magic... Rock-on ASIO!....and if it crashes again, Rock-on WaveOut! :)