2x2HR Track Tempo/Recording & Playback Latency/Priority Switching Issues

G'day

New owner of a 2x2HR, having switched from a Steinberg UR242. Expected a relatively seamless transition in Cakewalk (Sonars bouncing baby brother) but have run into many issues with new and existing projects.

Setup:
2x2HR with factory USB cable connected to USB 3.0 mobo port and external power brick connected
Firmware Ver: 1.00 0014
Software Ver: 1.00 0022
Cakewalk Ver: 2021.06 (Build 058, 64 bit)
Rig Specs: 4790k @ 4.8ghz, 32GB DDR3 @ 1600MHz, Z97X-UD5H, MX500 drive
See screenshot for current Cakewalk settings

https://imgur.com/a/WKmxq6b

Steinbergs' White Noise Generator preamps started to get the best of my patience, so I switched to a unit with proven good preamps (Julian Krause is my new bae). I required a system with a power socket (for utilizing extra grounding due to grounding issue with my Z97x-UD5H), and MIDI in/out for use with Line 6 Helix & external controllers. The 2x2HR fit the bill, but unfortunately while Steinbergs software integration is bulletproof, Tascams has been giving me grief from day 1.



Issue 1: Tempo Slowdown

After copypasting new MIDI data to a track, the new section is slowed down from 135 to 8 BPM. After the first crotchet in the chain has passed, the track speeds up to around 250 - 300 BPM on a smooth curve, then back down to 8BPM. No BPM changing has been used in the track, and AudioSnap is not engaged. I suspect perhaps the macro automation controllers for Serum are triggering as BPM change, however I have no idea how this is possible, and they are not assigned to do so.



Issue 2: Playback/Recording Latency

I'm not talking about Input Monitoring here. Or even round trip latency. I'm talking about regular playback and recording.
When listening to a track, some tracks will slowly fall behind, getting progressively worse as the song progresses. This error only occurs during playback, not export. Exported files are fine. MIDI tracks generally stay in time, but stems don't trigger at the correct time, and slowly become more and more out of sync as the bars progress. Some stems have been audio stretched to fit the track BPM, some haven't.

In addition, when recording intricate guitar sections (1/4 line out from Helix, no outboard processing), a section will be played in time live, and sound perfect during tracking using latency free input monitoring. This bit works great. What doesn't, is playing that section back. The track is usually not synced correctly, and even when the first bar is re-alligned manually to be in time, the rest of the stem is often out of time. This error DOES occur during export. I wonder if it's linked to the above issue with playback.



Issue 3: Windows Audio/Audio Priority Switching

2x2HR is rather poor at switching between the DAW and Windows sound. This seems simply like unstable drivers, lots of pops and slowdown, and occasionally requiring the DAW to be shut down before any Windows/other program sound will be played. Seems to depend what direction the wind is blowing, if it will do what it's supposed to. Cakewalk setting fiddling doesn't seem to have helped, and limited options in the US-HR Settings panel adds to the misery. Monitor Mix/Computer Mix setting makes no difference. Auto Power Save makes no difference either.


SO... Cable? Internal Clock? Software conflict? Poor drivers? Faulty hardware? While my rig is no powerhouse, it was entirely capable of handling 100 track projects filled with soft synths and heavy plugins, prior to my 'upgrade'. The only thing that's changed is the interface. And yes, Steinbergs old drivers were removed.

Any more information that's required will be posted. Am I just stupid, or should I go buy a UR44C and a Fethead?

Cheers

EDIT: No permission to upload photos. Imgur Link supplied