Severe Audio Latency with Multiple M-Audio Soundcards/Drivers

Ok. So..

I have 2 M-Audio Soundcards that work fine on other operating systems. I have a mac which works fine, but all my software is on my PC. M-Audio is horribly unhelpful so I'm hoping this forum might..

I've just gotten to the point where I've run around in circles chasing this problem that I don't even know where to look anymore.

Latency. Massive latency when recording audio. This is a new problem and I'm not even sure when it started but everything WAS working fine on Windows 7 at one point.

It cannot be solved within the buffer settings, it occurs in multiple audio recording software and with BOTH soundcards and every driver.

All of these factors let me know A. It's not my software OR the Hardware. It's something to do with Windows 7 and possibly combination with the drivers BUT since everything works perfectly on the mac..I have to blame it on windows. I don't have a choice.

Someone please help.

Just a thought here; It could be that windows only sees one sound-card as the dominant and the second sound-card and is just confusing windows to the point that it doesn't know which one to select from. As to the cause of your problem, my guess would be some update from "windows updates" that started the ball rolling on this. Which has been know to happen from time to time. Is there something in your BIOS that might have or needs to be tweaked.

Personal question; why do you need to sound cards?