Sound recorder stopped creating files. All eslse

I have an HP laptop with Win 7 64 bit. Speakers, internal microphone are Realtek HD Audio. I switched the sound card settings to enable Sound Recorder. It was working perfectly. I went to switch the settings back because I had to use the internal mic for an online meeting. I had a problem with this and a friend helped me. In trying to go back to the Sound Recorder all seemed well until I tried to save a file. Nothing happened. Before when I saved I could see it downloaded automatically. Now nothing.

The speakers work perfectly. The microphone works. When I click on the icon the Sound Recorder box pops up and shows it is detecting sound. The volumes on everything are over 80 %. I tried the Microsoft trouble shooter and all it did was route the mic through the speakers so i had both mic and internet playing through at the same time. I thought my friend might have deleted a driver but I can't seem to locate such a driver to reload. Somewhere something was changed and I missed it.

Settings are the sane as those that worked before:
Playback with speakers as default device Recording with microphone disabled & stereo mix enabled and set as default device Volume up

All this is new for me, I spent hours on line trying to find an answer until I found this forum.

I just did a test recording on my system, using the Windows Media Player to play a song and recorded it with the Sound Recorder. My default recording device is Stereo Mix. It played back OK, no problems.

For any recording, have the Stereo Mix set as the default then whatever input device is the source it will be heard on the PC speakers and in recording programs. You don't have to disable any input device.

I have a recording studio, so I don't use the Sound Recorder (or the PC's sound card for recording). But, if I needed to record anything I would use the free "Audacity" recording program, not the very basic Sound Recorder.
Audacity download | SourceForge.net