#1 restart your machine, see if if issues go away.

stuttering is unlikely to do with speakers. You can try headphones to rule it out.

One simple thing to try is put your computer is "Airplane mode" (disable network adapter) and see if you get issues. WiFi and Bluetooth sometimes do not play well with audio recording / gear.


Also... There is a popular (and free) piece of software called latencymon (Latency monitor). While it has all kinds of parameters, it will give you a general idea of the most intruding processes. Two of the most common ones are Nvidea drivers and WIFI adapter (cant do much about these), but there might be some software crapware that came with your computer that is persistent enough to cause audio issues.


"I wonder if Dell can remotely run a test on my USB ports." - Don't waste your time. It's a very narrow issue. I doubt Dell people will be able to help with 3rd party hardware.