I'm currently experiencing a problem with my PC that I've never seen, nor even heard of.  Every time I boot up a game, a bar is there that shows the current sound level of the game.  Here's a screen shot of my problem  As you can see it's distracting and I'm not sure how to get rid of it.  I've updated my drivers, restarted my computer more then once, messed around with audio stuff, unplugged stuff, and pretty much anything else that came to mind.  I've never seen such a thing, nor do I know how to get rid of it.  Some facts I do know it appears on any game that I launch from steam, which is all of them.  I launched games not from steam and it still appears there.   If you have any advice to give I'll take whatever it is that you have to offer.  I'm not sure how to solve this problem and thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

what audio components are you using? also which OS are you under?

Did you just hit a button on your monitor (or keyboard for that matter) or something to display it?

Actually I solved the problem yesterday, it was the graphics card drivers that were causing the problem.