Just lost my sound icon. Please help

bliss

bliss

bliss

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I noticed earlier today that my sound icon wasn't in the systray. I had recently installed new Realtek drivers to i quickly removed them and installed the ones i had previously been using. Still no windows sounds to speak of. The only other thing i've noticed so far that doesn't work is video's built into webpages like youtube etc, media player, winamp, powervdvd, games etc are fine. I've checked in the audio settings to see if "place icon in system tray" was unchecked but it was not. I unchecked, applied, rechecked, applied just to be sure, still nothing. I really need help on this guys and i'm completely stumped.

I came across this on a forumk but i'm not sure if i should go ahead or not.

The problem was not just in the volume control but battery status and "Safely Remove Hardware" icons in the system tray as well.

What happens is that systray.exe "somehow" gets removed from the startup. You cannot manually run systray.exe (well, you can, but it doesn't seem to do anything). Here are the steps (nothing new from what Felix said but just more step-by-step):

1. Start > Run ... Type "msconfig" [OK]
2. Go to Startup tab and see if "Systray" is on the list of startup items and it is checked (probably, if you are having this problem, it is not).
3. If it is there but not checked, then check it, click [OK} and restart your computer.
4. It is is NOT there, then you have to add it using the Registry Editor.
a. Start > Run ... Type "regedit" [OK]
b. In the left pane, select key "My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run"
c. You will see a list of various string names and values that all represent something that runs on startup. Systray should be in that list and probably isn't.
d. Edit > New > String Value and overtype "New Value #1" with "SysTray"
e. With this new "Systray" selected, Edit > Modify and under "Value data" type in the following string INCLUDING the quotes and then [OK]
"C:\Windows\System32\Systray.exe"
(This assumes the default installation directory, but you may want to confirm that systray.exe indeed resides there.
f. Restart and you should start seeing the vanishing icons.

The reason i'm not sure if i should is because i still have my Safely remove hardware icon and the sound icon is the only one affected.

Please please please help me get my sound icon back. :(
 
Just searched my system32 folder to see if the file was still there and it is

sndvol32.exe

Why isn't it loading on boot? :(
 
I just set it to "always show" and have now set it to show all icons. Just rebooted and it's still not loading. I can start it manually via the start menu but this doesn't help. I've just checked my drivers and they're all ok so it would seem as though something in windows is not loading the sound icon. I've just been to sound and devices in the control panel and if i highlight say exit windows the play sounds button is greyed out. :(

I still don't understand this at all. I had the new drivers for 3 days with no problem and now today no icon. Seems to me as though the drivers aren't the problem here.

Think a restore may help? Is there a regedit command i can try?
 
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bliss said:
I just set it to "always show" and have now set it to show all icons. Just rebooted and it's still not loading. I can start it manually via the start menu but this doesn't help. I've just checked my drivers and they're all ok so it would seem as though something in windows is not loading the sound icon. I've just been to sound and devices in the control panel and if i highlight say exit windows the play sounds button is greyed out. :(

I still don't understand this at all. I had the new drivers for 3 days with no problem and now today no icon. Seems to me as though the driver aren't the problem here.
Click to expand...

Hmm, have you checked to make sure the device is working properly? Control panel>system>hardware>device manager>sound,video & game controllers.

try rolling back to the old driver perhaps ?
 
My drivers seems to be fine. I've just been doing some reading and one person lost his sounds after removing the FFDShow codec which i also did roughly 2 days ago but didn't reboot until recently. I'm installing it again now to see if this fixes things. I think i'll be back though. :(

edit: as i thought reinstalling did nothing. Does anybody know there way around the registry enough to point me in the direction of the part that loads the sound icon on bootup? :)
 
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Windows Audio is checked and the status is 'running'

Startup selection: Normal
 
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FIXED!

I followed a tip to download the K-Lite codec pack and to use the [Registry] Fix non-working system sound option in the config. Reboot and my sound icon and windows sounds are back. Man what a annoyance that was :D

The question i'm asking myself now is what registry entry did it actually fix :confused:
 
Last edited:
bliss said:
FIXED!

I followed a tip to download the K-Lite codec pack and to use the [Registry] Fix non-working system sound option in the config. Reboot and my sound icon and windows sounds are back. Man what a annoyance that was :D

The question i'm asking myself now is what registry entry did it actually fix :confused:
Click to expand...
Well done for fixing it. I'll make a note of that just incase I have that problem sometime in the future.
 
Sputnik II said:
Well done for fixing it. I'll make a note of that just incase I have that problem sometime in the future.
Click to expand...

Probably a good idea. Save you all the hassle i had :D
 
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