Poor USB Audio

[JamesFearn]

Hi all,

I have a rather annoying issue with a brand new (less than a week old) HP Envy 15-ep0010na laptop where audio delivery via either USB A or USB C is crackly, slow, and has a pulse every 1 to 2 seconds where if fells like someone is pausing and un-pausing the audio rapidly (of/on).

Through investigation I have determined that audio delivery via the laptop speakers, 3.5mm jack and bluetooth are fine however audio delivery to USB devices (multiple headsets that are know working on other laptop and USB monitor with speakers) is dreadful. The USB ports for other devices, such as monitors, keyboards and mice etc. work fine.

I have updated Windows 10 to the latest May 2021 21H1 release, updated the laptop components via HP Support Assistant, updated the nvidia graphics and audio drivers and I still face the same issue. I have also read that there are some settings to do with audio device exclusivity that sometimes impact the performance of audio however with these settings enabled/disabled there is no difference. 

I am considering flattening the laptop and rebuilding a clean OS but before I do I wanted to see if anyone in the community had any suggestions.  

[JamesFearn]

Additionally I've just booted to a Ubuntu live USB and the audio with the base drivers is perfect so it seems to be Windows 10 driver related.

[JamesFearn · Accepted solution]

I reformatted and re-installed Windows as the laptop was new enough that the inconvenience would be minor and I think I have found the cause of the issue. My wireless headset is a Corsair Virtuoso RGB which uses a Corsair application iCUE to control the RGB and other settings. 

With a fresh Windows installation and minimal driver setup all worked fine. I deliberately began streaming music whilst installing applications to see if anything in particular caused the issue and as soon as I installed the Corsair iCUE software the audio problems because apparent again - I uninstalled and the problem went away. 

I think I'll mark this as resolved, I hope it helps someone else out there. 

[JamesFearn]

Just a more thorough update if anyone else is struggling with this. It is indeed the Corsair iCUE software that is at fault and there is no current fix offered by Corsair despite it being present in multiple versions of the iCUE software. The iCUE software is required to enable the 7.1 sound features of the headset so without iCUE you are stuck a 2 channel audio.

A workaround for this is to install the iCUE software as you normally would but to DELETE the file "Corsair.Service.CpuIdRemote64.exe" from C:\Program Files\Corsair\CORSAIR iCUE 4 Software\. You will need to stop the corresponding CpuIdRemote service before deleting the file however this will immediately resolve the audio skipping issue and you will continue to have full driver functionality for 7.1 sound features at the cost of not being able to use the RGB which is a minimal pain. 

Hope this helps someone in the future.