missing volume control icon

[Grammy]

Hi Bigtoe, Well, I`m back again. With all the work I have been doing on my laptop I seem to have lost my volume control icon that is always in the bottom right hand corner. I just connected a webcam to Skype so I can see & talk to all my grandkids & now I can`t talk because I can`t unmute the sound without the control. I`ve tried everything I could think of. I went to sounds & volume in the control panel, clicked on it & saw where you can click for the icon to appear on taskbar but it was greyed out so I couldn`t click on it. Now what? I have faith that you will know exactly what to do. Thanks in advance for all your help. You are a Blessing to all us Senior computer players.

[bigtoe]

Another way of having that little sound speaker show in the System Tray is to move your cursor down to the task bar and do a right click on a blank area....select Properties... On the page that opens go down to the bottom and click on Customize... look in that list of icons for the speaker sound icon and single click on it so that on the right side you see the drop down arrow....click that and select "Always show" and click the OK button.... You may need to reboot your machine for this registry change to take place....

These are the directions for WinXP .... Let us know if this gets that sound icon displaying again... That should take care of it, but if not there is lots of registry help we can do via this neat site called Kelley's Korner which I refer to quite often....
http://kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_v.htm#volume

This hiding or missing volume control icon is a common problem, sometimes as easily fixed by a reboot of the system as by other methods....

[Grammy]

I hope you don`t get tired of me bugging you all the time but this is really frustrating. I did the following:

Another way of having that little sound speaker show in the System Tray is to move your cursor down to the task bar and do a right click on a blank area....select Properties... On the page that opens go down to the bottom and click on Customize... look in that list of icons for the speaker sound icon and single click on it so that on the right side you see the drop down arrow....click that and select "Always show" and click the OK button.... You may need to reboot your machine for this registry change to take place....

the Volume (muted) is listed under PAST ITEMS list...how do I get it in the CURRENT ITEMS list. I tried to restore but that didn`t work either.

In Kelly`s corner, it says to place your XP CD in & do certain things but I don`t have a XP CD. Where can I get one?

[bigtoe]

Without the CD, we can use Kelley's Korner and a little registry tweak to restore the sound icon. I had to do this quite some time ago on a laptop, and worked quite well....

Go to this page http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm and scroll down to line 316..... on the right column is a tweak called "Sound icon Restore".... This feature uses Notepad and is really almost all automatically done, just needs to have you do a couple of double clicks of the mouse to help it....

Double click on "sound icon restore" and that will open up a text display in notepad on your window screen.... Now we just save that to our desktop by clicking on the File Menu  File>>Save as .... name it sound icon and save it to your desktop.

Now you just go to your desktop display (minimize this browser or click your desktop icon in the quick launch area next to START..... Double click that saved file icon on the desktop... It automatically puts those registry entry words in your registry where they belong..... Restart the computer for the changes to take effect....

Here's the directions from the top of Kelley's Korner page to let you know what you do and is happening when you do the double click of the saved file:

To use the Regedits:  Save the REG File to your hard disk. Double click it and answer yes to the import prompt. REG files can be viewed in Notepad by right clicking on the file and selecting Edit.

To use the VBS Files: Download .vbs file and save it to your hard drive (you may want to right click and use Save Target As).  Double click  the vbs file. You will be prompted when the script is done.

Really easy to do and should take care or restoring your ability to work with the formerly grayed out Sound Control icon option........

[bigtoe]

Grammy ... I just wanted to be sure this is what you were seeing when you went to Control Panel and opened the Sound and Audio Devices folder?



Something that works for me and others, if this is what you have, is to untick that checkmark to show the icon in the notification area (system tray by clock) and OK your way out, reboot, and come back and put the check mark back in the box to show the icon and OK your way out which may again require you to close the browser window and reopen it.. so that volume control speaker icon is again showing.....

One of these methods will work... just hoping I am not including too much and causing any confusion with the different methods available.... 

[Grammy]

just to let you know this did not work for me. I must be a complete idiot because you make it sound so easy but I couldn`t get it to work. I checked to see if the greyed out area had changed but it was still greyed out so that didn`t change. I was ok with the process until I got to the part of desktop icon in the quick launch area next to START. I`ll try again tomorrow I guess when I settle down a little. I`m am just so totally confused, I`m a mess. I can`t get this thing to show a volume control so that I can unmute it & hear the sounds. I`m sorry, I know you tried but I`m self taught on this computer & I try to figure things out on my own so I don`t bother anyone but this has really got me down. Thank you for all your help. I`ll give it another shot in a little while. You are a good man & a real Blessing!!

[bigtoe]

Grammy ... No problem at all, I enjoy trying to help; especially when working with someone who is as motivated as you are... You're doing great and we'll keep on trying until we meet with success....

Just to clarify in my mind where we stand, on the photo I posted above where I show the check mark in the place volume icon in the taskbar, this is the area you are saying is grayed out so you can't tick or untick that little box? How about that Advanced box just under that, can you click the Advanced box? That opens up the Master Volume control box where we can check to be sure there is no tick mark in any of the mute boxes.....

There is also a setting in Skype to be sure that you are using the correct sound card in order to get your Mic working correctly, rather than the default setting that happens when Skype is installed (as though I'm some expert...hahaha... I just got flustered when trying Skype and couldn't get any voice until I realized I needed to default to the sound card in this laptop.... duhhh.... We all feel kind of "less bright" at times ... LOL ) .... I include a pic of my setting to show what I am talking about. Just thought we could check this setting as well (not even sure I have the latest version of Skype loaded on here)....



So with the Skype tools setting, and with the Master Control checked to be sure we don't have the Mic ticked as Muted.... We can continue efforts from here.... I'm really stubborn and will stick with this until we get you speaking on Skype again. I appreciate your patience and continued efforts....

[Grammy]

yes, that`s the box that I can`t click on anything . It is all greyed out. I do have my Skype sound going ok now, so thats a +. I`m about to fall asleep so I think I better head for the bed. It`s a little past midnight, my bedtime. Thank you so much for sticking with me on this matter. I`ll work on it again tomorrow & see if I can figure out your last instructions again when my head is a little clearer. Goodnight & thanks again.

[Grammy]

Hello again, I think I made progress but not in a good way although I think I might have found out why your instructions didn`t work for me.

I went to the Control Panel....clicked on Sounds & Audio Devices.....in the Sounds & Audio Devices Properties box next to the sound icon, it says, "No audio device".

I suppose that is the problem right there in a nut shell. If I don`t have it, I can`t save it. Now what do I do.    

[bigtoe]

I'm suspecting that when you installed Skype it overroad some default settings for your sound card. The same thing happens for folks who install Magic Jax (or is it Jacks?) for internet telephony service, sometimes.... Also wondering if your sound card might need a driver update?

Can you open Device Manager and check and see if there are any yellow question or exclamation marks for your sound card? Get to it in two ways:
Window key + Pause/Break key at same time to open System Properties and then Device Manager. Or, in Control Panel>>System>>System Properties>>Device Manager and check through there for the red or yellow exclamation or question markings indicating there may be trouble... Might need to go to your cards manufacturer site and get the latest sound card driver. Since you now have sounds via Skype and you likely hear the sounds when your computer boots up, you still have your sound card installed.... but, then again, maybe some computer trained mice came in during the night and got into the box and... ..... Unlikely, so either sound cards driver or maybe even uninstall and reinstall of Skype....

Will let you do some snooping mechanically and see what happens.... Not out of the question to have both the grayed out control tick area and to also get that "No audio device", as Google search shows many others get that problem, and solutions from simple reboot to updating drivers....

[bigtoe]

I dunno if the Services for sound might have had a hic-up and been changed to disabled, possibly when Skype was installed, but here is another possible solution that may get rid of that grayed out sound control icon area .......

On desktop go to Start>>>Administrative Tools >>>Services >>>Windows audio... If it shows the service as stopped, single click the line so you can highlite it  and change it to Started by clicking the Restart blue link on the left of the page (if it’s been stopped). This may also take a reboot of the computer to finalize the change...

Now, I'll wait and try not to overburden you with all this Sherlock Holmes snooping and investigating and we'll see what happens depending on what you find....

[Grammy]

OOOOH, my goodness, after all that work & headache, what a simple solution to a fix. I just went into Services, it was disabled, so I clicked on it like you said & restarted it. I sure couldn`t have done it without your expert knowledge. You are WONDERFUL!!! I owe you a steak & lobster dinner whenever you get a chance to come to Az. I`m going to tell Sandy to give you a raise!!!!! I THINK I LOVE YOU!!!

[bigtoe]

Oh, no... not a pay raise.... that could put me in another tax bracket and I'm just getting by on the little left over from taxes now.. .. LOL. You could give yourself a raise, you did all the work . .. Or give yourself a title like "CEO of Frustration Resolvements" and just let everyone know you're the boss by wearing a name tag with CEO emblazoned on it.... ... I enjoy helping, and get paid back when I see posters return and help someone else because of the knowledge they gained, or if they'll just go out and "pay it forward" and do a good deed for a stranger... That is worth a lot of gold to me...

You are to be commended for that "stick to it" attitude and taking the time to rule out possibilities one by one.... so many different things can cause interruptions to our enjoyment of our computers, from programs that don't play nice with each other - new programs that change settings or install themselves in the startup folder and then run in the background, slowing us down to a crawl - just those general hic-ups that computers are want to do now and then... Most of the time, it is a process of elimination and educated guesses, but problems can be fixed without going through that miserable method that so many tech shops tend to do and just reinstall our operating systems and make us have to reinstall our data, programs, updates and pray we had all of it backed up and accessible.

It's fun and educational for me as well, and hopefully anyone who reads through these threads to learn and help themselves so they can also stay in "Happy Camperland". This might have come from the install of Skype or it could have been part of that malware rogue AV program just doing some of it's nasty action on the computer.... Guessing you won't click on some unexpected AV program that mysteriously appears in a pop-up on your screen in the future. Suspecting you'll just quickly click the big X in the upper right hand screen corner of the browser window and close the browser or rt clicking on taskbar and selecting Taskmanager and closing out the process very quickly.... You are now an "expert" on that misery causing malware Personal Antivirus 2009...

Glad all worked out.... now enjoy your efforts.... .... Happy Puterin', Al (BigToe)