Mon Oct 09, 2023 4:50 pm
Reporting back here, because while Asio4All stopped the audio cutout, I continued having glitches of a different sort at or around the same time I used to have the cutouts. The glitches would last for couple of seconds and then would either go away or the audio would "restart" and all would be well again... for a while. I could never solve it completely, and it was becoming frustrating indeed. I was running with realtime priority as a matter of course, and that wasn't solving it.
Tonight I decided to get to the bottom of it when I noticed that the glitches were accompanied by CPU spikes. I left task manager open to see if anything obvious was occurring at the moment the problem generally arises. Antimalware was one, but I could also see that coming and going without the problem. I started to delete Dell bloatware that I saw popping up, but still the problem persisted. Eventually I uninstalled SupportAssistAgent (more Dell bloatware) and now I think I finally have it. I've thought that before, of course, but I played for a decent amount of time without any further problems.
I must admit, if I ever buy another PC for Hauptwerk use I don't think I'll buy Dell again. I'm logging this here in the hope that it will help somebody else, and prevent the tearing out of significant amount of hair!