HP Spectre 13-v001na Windows 10 1809 external USB 2 Sound device problems

[AX_Murdarah]

External USB 2 sound devices are extremely distorted on the HP SPectre laptop.

Background:

I have attempted to use the HP Spectre 13-v001na  running Windows 10 with audio recording software (Cubase, Cakewalk) which relies on external  USB2 sound devices - Yamaha THR10 and Presonus iBox 2 are two I have used.    The software suffers from audio dropouts with very little strain on the system, and cannot be used.

Now:

  I have attempted to pin the issue down. Even if I attempt to use the Sound applet in Control Panel and run test to play the simple chime sound, the sound distorts and breaks up.  There is no problem with the sound using the inbuilt sound card.   The Spectre Notebook only has USB C ports, and I have tried connecting using the HP adapter cable (833960-001613A), as well as USB2 and USB3 external hubs with the same results

I re-installed Windows 10 (Version 1809), and installed HP Solution Assistant to update all firmware and hardware.  Windows has all the latest updates.  I am also using the latest drivers/firmware  for the sound devices from Yamaha and Presonus.

There is an HP article - https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c03327635 - with a section on 'USB 2.0 Device Does Not Work When Connected to a USB 3.0 Port' However, this recommends uninstalling the USB 3.0 Root Hub, which stops USB devices from working until a reboot, at which point Windows automatically reinstalls the USB 3.0 Root Hub driver (which is supplied by Microsoft)

The same external hardware (Yamaha and Presonus sound cards) works perfectly well on other computers, including a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10 1809, which has 'old style' USB 3 ports.  I have only recently started to use the Spectre, so I ma not aware of this ever working.

Are there any suggestions?   The Spectre is currently useless for its music production job, and in danger of becoming  a £1300 frisbee

Thanks

Bob

[AX_Murdarah]

I don't believe this was a USB issue, rather it was an issue with the awful Conexant HD Audio driver.  I eventually managed to remove this from the system, and now - with the on board sound disabled - the audio through the USB attached device is usable, though not great