Dunno if this could help.  Download this Dell audio driver.  Extract it and locate ASIO folder.  Installing the ASIO driver to your system.  The Audio Stream Input/Output may help to bring latency down.

@desertcoast   -Always include exact PC model and version of Windows in your posts.

@fireberd is our resident expert with a professional audio studio, and experience with latency issues. So search these forums for his posts on this topic.  I @ mentioned him here so he may respond directly to this thread with questions and suggestions...

I have a home studio, using Cakewalk (Sonar) and Studio One 4.6 Pro. MOTU interface unit.
We absolutely need Dell Model number and what video you have,
First thing, its not a Windows Defender problem.  I can run Latency Mon for hours without an error  Norton, McAffee and some other AV's can be a problem with latency/dropouts.  I use Defender and Malwarebytes.
Disable Dell Support Assist, its a known issue with latency/dropouts.
If you have NVIDIA video this can be an issue, but can be tamed.

@fireberd​ 

Thanks. Sorry, it looked like system info was on top of post and included...guess not :)

XPS 8960-Core™ i7-13700K, 16GB DDR5, at 4800MHz,512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive, 2 other SDD's added myself, both used and tested well on prior system.

W11 Home, built in Intel graphics. Also using CW with UAD Apollo USB. Disabled all Dell Assist stuff. 

Thanks for any/all input!

Edit: I will add something on the DELL online hardware test that is bugging me a bit. Saw this item:

PCIeStatus and UsbStatus  as failures. At first glance just thought that was something I had likely disabled in Device manager or BIOS, but now I'm wondering. Will keep trying to figure that one out...

@desertcoast​ - Glad @fireberd has responded to you...

Is a specific device listed for those PCIeStatus and/or USBStatus failures?  There are threads about other Dell PC models where the online testing reports failures for a Realtek SD card reader, which the XPS 8960 also has.  (The card reader is an internal USB device.)

If Realtek card reader is the device reported as failing, insert an SD card into the reader and make sure you can read/write to it. Assuming that's ok, rerun those online tests with the card still in the reader and see if the errors disappear...

And one more thingy...How did you disable the bloatware? Did you uninstall it completely or...?  You may want to look in Start>Run>services.msc and make sure all "Dell" services are disable.

You may also want to disable all "Killer" services in services.msc too. You don't need any of them to use either Killer Ethernet or Killer WiFi and they might cause some latency issues too. 

@RoHe​  thanks for the reply. No devices listed for those fails. Assumed one of those may have been the Realtek disabled in BIOS? Card Reader...good catch. Confirmed it works. I'll rerun the test as you suggest. Dell services are uninstalled at Control Panel>uninstall, as well as Killer stuff.

@desertcoast​ My current DAW desktop, recently built is using an i7 13700,  I reused the system NVME from an old build as many older, that I use, VST's are no longer available.  

Make sure all Dell services are disabled.   Look at startup and disable unnecessary apps.

The fact when the NIC is disabled its better suggests some app(s) is accessing or trying to access internet.  On this I'm still old school and disable the NIC when using as a DAW.  Disable Wi-FI and Bluetooth.

Resplendence Latency Mon will overwhelm you with data but somewhere in all the data is the clue.

Having said all that, I have a Dell laptop I use for on site recording.  I could never get it completely clean and would get an audio dropout about every 8 minutes.  It had space to install a second disc so I installed an SSD and made a dual boot system,  One the original Dell  disc image and the second only the Windows OS, needed device drivers and DAW software.  The second is clean and I can record a live 3 hour show without an error/dropout.

@desertcoast​ - I'd still check in services.msc to make sure Startup type for all "Dell" and "Killer" services is set to Disabled.  - If any are still listed...

Uninstalling them at the control panel can still leave unneeded junk behind. So -as @fireberd said- you want to check both in services.msc and on the Startup tab in Task Manager to make sure it's all disabled...

@RoHe​ 

WiFi and Blue are disabled.

Still no answers on the PCIeStatus & USBStatus failures from online Dell Hardware test.

Even with NIC disabled, results are only a bit better and still frequent glitches.

Startup is lean. Overall app count is barebones, very few allowed to run in background unless critical. I will double back and check if any of those sneaky Dell services are still running.

20+ years of building/running Daws and I've pretty much exhausted my usual tricks here.

I'm about a week away from end of my 30 day return window. I'll call DELL today and see if they have any insights and then it's probably decision time.