Bizarre activity of the VU meter VS playback volume

v 2.3.0 New installation.

The pics show two screen shots of the Audacity screen during playback.Note the the meter shows higher/overload volume when the volume output slide bar is set mid way but if I raise the slide bar level, the meter level drops to a normal/not overloaded image.

If this is not common, I am sure it may take a while to see what is happen
Audacity Volume level 1.JPG
Audacity Volume level 2.JPG

Yes that’s bizarre.
Another bizarre thing is that there’s no recording device showing.
Does this have anything to do with the automatic-gain-control you were making? (https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-does-audacity-control-the-mixer-volume-on-the-computer/50360/1)

Also strange how your version of Audacity looks like it’s running on Windows (this is the Mac board). Was that unintended or are you running Audacity in Boot Camp?

On that AGC, I have been totally unable to find anyone who can help me see/adjust the system volume by code so that project is on the side getting moldy.

I neglected to mention that the actual volume output through the speakers correctly changes directly with the adjustment of the slide bar.

This is a new installation on a new computer and I have not been able to get an input device to be recognized by the software.

I record the audio, (24 hours at a clip) to a using a 7GB* USB thumb drive on Saturdays and Sundays on a different machine. For that computer, there is no change in audio or meter range in play back mode. The system with the strange output and missing input is the one I use to playback the weekend tracks.

*I recall being impressed when I went to a 1.2G full size hard drive from a 200M drive… Now 6 times that much is on a chip smaller than my fingernail. AND COSTS LESS!

What’s the recording device?
Is it recognised by Windows? (are you on Windows?)

Windows 10.
I am playing podcasts from the Internet using Internet Explorer.
A Juke box program calls the URLs according to the schedule and they play through the speakers…
The last link is the connection to Audacity which seems to be the culprit.
I wonder if that fix will also take care, or explain, the VU meter problem.

So the “Juke box program” is acting as a kind of “virtual sound card”? I wonder how it is doing that - what’s the program?

The Jukebox is Excel with VB code in the developer. It is about 1000 lines of code with many features beyond just being a jukebox.
It works as designed on another computer so this problem has to be between Audacity and the sound card.
I am beginning to think that the fact that no input is defined could be a flag to the answer.

The fact that there is no input defined, does indicate that there’s a problem with the sound system. Because Audacity has to work on many different kinds of computers and multiple operating systems, it requires that the sound system complies full with technical specifications - Audacity is intolerant of sound system errors.

Is this something you wrote yourself?
How does it connect to the sound system?
If the program outputs to the speakers, how do you capture to disk?