Microphone is not working in apps (privacy settings are ok)

[Aberystwyth]

I hope you can help with a Windows 11 Microphone oddity on a newly purchased laptop.  The internal Microphone does not appear to work, yet when accessed by itself (i.e. input test) the line does work.  We think we might have exhausted all online help ideas (it's not the privacy enable setting)!  I am looking at this issue for my mum on her newly purchased laptop.

• Laptop is a HP envy with Windows 11 (newly purchased and Windows 11 installed from the start)
• Within applications (Sound recorder and zoom) the Microphone does not work
• Correct microphone (Microsoft Array) is selected
• HP and Windows diagnostics say that it is working
• When you go direct to the microphone "test" it suggests it is working (you can see the sound bar move when speaking so it is detecting something)
• The Windows privacy settings are set so that Microphone should be accessible by all apps, have tried enabling and disabling.
• Have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the driver
• Have looked for updates to the driver and windows
• It is selected in system settings as the default device
• We have connected an external microphone (with a webcam) and this works fine.  Toggle settings back to the internal one (array) and it doesn't work.
• We have tried setting up speech recognition but that doesn't hear what you are saying either (even though it is also allowed in the privacy settings)

When using an app the microphone just does not want to do anything, yet go straight to the Microphone and you can see the bar going up and down which suggests it is not a hardware fault. Any advice would be much appreciated.