Have you tried just recording a track without opening the VU window??
This may help us solve the problem.
If you can indeed record, just can't open the VU it may be something completely different (like driver setup) than if you still can't record at all.

I'm sure I can set my system up to error on the VU meter, but still be able to record. At least I could with previous system.

When you open the VU it tries to use the default devices. Just how RB works.
If you haven't selected the USB input as the *only* available device, and have a valid output device selected, and then clicked the 'move selected device to top' button you are not set up to use them as the default devices. It may be that you should instead use the driver's software mixer to monitor levels.
For systems with multiple input selections, it is possible to make it so RB can not find the desired device, in which case I would expect an error when envoked.

We don't know yet if it is caused by input side or output side due to lack of details and responses.

I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!