Test speakers

I bought a new laptop recently and had a problem that no sound came through to me. So I used my old laptop for a bit, but finally got round to trying to fix this.

I uninstalled zoom and then downloaded it and reinstalled it today 24 apr 24. 'Test' speakers in zoom gave no sound. No problem with Youtube videos - so the new laptop speakers work OK.

Finally, today, it dawned on me that I could have a zoom meeting between my old laptop and my new one. Bingo!

Well, sort of - my voice goes from one laptop to the other in either direction with the 'remote' mic muted.

BUT the zoom speaker test still makes almost no sound. It makes a very little sound when I first press 'Test' and is then silent. And when I test the mic in zoom, the recording plays through the speakers as it should - weird.

Laptop is Acer 3 15. Sound is Realtek. OS is W11  version 23H2. I could not find any setting which would obviously prevent an app using my speakers.