Try this fix from kelly's-korner. Scroll down to line 54 and on the right select:
Save Settings on Exit
Instructions to run Regedits at top of web page.

Steve_S, Are you sure it is not just hidden in the task bar? Try going to control panel>taskbar and start menu.click customize- click on speaker(or volume) -on the dropdown box that appears choose always show and see if this works for you.

Dell Dimension 2350 ,2gig p4,768mb ram, 60gb hardrive, sp2,windows xp home,Spyware blaster,Norton av,zone alarm,adaware,spybot sd, Microsoft anti spyware,Maxtor Onetouch11,200gig external hard drive.Firefox 1.5.0.1

Thank you both for your assistance.

The problem was not a hidden icon but was resolved by running Regedits as suggested.

Thanks again.

Steve in Oregon