Win XP Pro SP-1 Volume Icon missing from taskbar

[NoSpeed]

The "Show volume icon in taskbar" checkbox is checked. But, I experience a failure of this icon to appear during my initial boot up of the day. To get the icon to appear, I have to uncheck the box, click Apply, recheck the box and then click OK. I am the administrator and only user of my machine. It is password protected. During occasional reboots that may happen throughout the workday, the icon seems to appear as it should. However, it is not 100% and I am unable to figure out a cause/effect relationship as to why. Additionally, some items in my Start Up folder do not launch to the taskbar. I have to reselect them via the Start Menu for them to behave normally. I have done a search on this subject here at Anand Tech and get no hits. Also, there is no Knowledge Based Article regarding this exact problem at Microsoft. I did request help from MS Tech Support and they thought it might be a bug in SP-1. They suggested deleting my password, rebooting, then reinstalling the same password with another reboot. This did appear to resolve the issue, but the cure did not stick. Anyone else experiencing this? Other than waiting for SP-2 or uninstalling SP-1, does anyone have a suggestion to try? I can live with it, but it's darn annoying!:frown:

 

[kursplat]

During occasional reboots that may happen throughout the workday, the icon seems to appear as it should. However, it is not 100% and I am unable to figure out a cause/effect relationship

is there a reason your rebooting durring the day ? if your having to , due to other problems , the volume icon may just be a symptom of something else. if so a repair install might help.
good luck

 

[josphII]

well i dont know if this is a bug or if its just my machine but when i install upnp (universal plug and play) support my volume icon doesnt show up when i boot. if i uncheck "show volume in system tray", click apply, then recheck it, and click apply it comes back up.

 

[NoSpeed]

kursplat, I can run all day without a reboot. However, there are occations when I might reboot during the day. One common reason is my scanner. I do not need it running all day long. Since it is a SCSI device, the OS will not recognize it by simply powering it up. A reboot is necessary for it to operate correctly with its software. Another common reason I might reboot is due to a Windows Update. Recently, MS sent an update in response to a worm virus that hit the internet. Crashes with Win XP Pro SP-1 are rare. Your suggestion to do a repair implies a corrupted sndvol32.exe file. MS has a KB article on this, but I do no fit the exact criteria. It suggests expanding the sndvol32.exe from the installation CD. This is far easier than doing a full repair. However, this file behaves normally for me. I do not get an error message of any kind, as is implied in the KB article.
josphII, thanks for confirming I am not alone on this. If installing or uninstalling Universal Plug & Play is the trigger, then it is a bug MS needs to know about. I believe you would need to power down your system to confirm this. What is strange is that the behavior of this icon is different with a restart versus a shutdown. It's a mystery.

 

[bacillus]

have you tried powering up the scanner then in device manager>scan for hardware changes?
works for my non scsi scanner!

 

[NoSpeed]

bacillus, I did not know that tip. It works perfectly. Thanks.

 

[kursplat]

have you looked at the device manager when the volume icon disapears to see if there are any problems with the sound card ?
if it is a problem with Plug and Play detection you might be back to a repair.
good luck

 

[NoSpeed]

kursplat, I tried your suggestion. There is no problems reflected in Device Manager regarding sound or any other area. All say they are working properly, enabled with no IRQ conflicts. Sound card drivers are current for my SBLive Platinum card. Thanks.

 

[kursplat]

man , i hate to say it but sometimes it's just the quickest way to deal with windows most bizzare problems : repair\reinstall
good luck

 

[NoSpeed]

kursplat, I finally took your suggestion to reload the OS. I did a clean install on a new FAT 32 partition. I reinstalled all Windows Updates, drivers and programs. The case of the missing Volume Icon is solved. Thanks for your help.

 

[kursplat]

sorry you had to do it , but glad it worked . i've had that before with 98 i think and reinstall was all i could do too.