Issues on playback after installing 2024 update

Loaded the 2024 update to Audition and experiencing a couple of bugs. I record voice audio directly into Audition using a Samson Q2U handheld dynamic USB mic with a pop screen and a boom. Laptop is a 2020 MacBook Air with the 1.1 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 processor and Sonoma 14.0 OS. Since installing the newest version of Audition, I am getting dropouts on playback. The sound will "jump" or skip a whole second and then pick up a word or two later. There's no silence in between, but rather a mashup within the sentence. Secondly, I am experiencing a grainy or scratchy audio quality on playback. It's clean in my headsets when recording, but I get a slight distortion during certain parts of playback. I have adjusted the gain and run DeClicker (which I always do) to no avail. Wondering if this is a hardware or software problem. Also, I have read that the WiFi in my home could be "competing" for processing space, which could cause the dropouts. Does the WiFi have to be on when I am recording directly into Audition? Massively frustrating, as I am recording segments of a podcast and the sound quality is poor. Thanks in advance.