multiple issues suddenly *** fixed ***

Been great up til now, slowly learning all the functions and recording techniques. Just for music and podcast recording off the net.
Started getting distortions in playback and recordings seemed off. The PC speakers are still sounding the same outside of Audacity.
The only controls I select is WASAPI / stereo mix / 48K project rate and adjust the record and playback sliders to suit the recording. Now when I hit record the sounds drops to mono( seemingly) and the volume drops. Hit stop it goes back to normal. If I select headphones / speakers the audio will not drop to mono but the record slider will pin to 100.

What Did I muck up? Just updated to 2.3.0 to see if that was cause - no change.

Thanks.

IDT codec showed working properly, went through the troubleshooting auto process without fix. I had been hearing ‘pops’ and had odd lag issues when making selections. So a bunch of issues. Tip from another site mentioned to delete the codec and restart windows. Codec auto installed. SOLVED. Back to 100%.
One of the great programs to play with - thank you Audacity team.