UNSOLVED
Volume Icon.... AGAIN
Yes, I know it's an old problem, but the fix is not working now!
I recently reinstalled Win XP Home with SP-2.... and the dratted issue where the volume icon won't stay in the taskbar is back! I dealt with it before and the fix finally worked... but when I did a search here in the forum and did the same fix, it doesn't work! Every time I reboot, the volume icon is gone again. I can bring it back by doing this....
1. Click the Start button.
2. Click Control Panel.
3. Double-click the Sounds and Audio Devices icon.
4. In the Device volume section of the window, click to select the Place volume control on the taskbar box.
5. Click the OK button.
6. Close the Control Panel window.
The Volume Control icon shows up then, but it is gone again next time I reboot.
So I did this next fix…
Resolve the Sndvol32.exe Issue
1. Press and hold down the key while inserting the Windows XP CD into the CD drive.
2. Click the Start button.
3. Click Run.
4. In the Open: field, type: cmd
5. Click the OK button.
6. At the command prompt, type: X: where X is the drive letter of the CD drive
7. Press the key.
8. At the command prompt, type: CD i386
9. Press the key.
10. At the command prompt, type: expand sndvol32.ex_ c:\windows\system32\sndvol32.exe
11. Press the key.
12. Close the C:\WINDOWS\System32\cmd.exe window.
.....
Well, that doesn't work.
What now?
I thought I was done with this issue, but this is a whole 'nuther PC and a brand-new copy of WinXP!
I recently reinstalled Win XP Home with SP-2.... and the dratted issue where the volume icon won't stay in the taskbar is back! I dealt with it before and the fix finally worked... but when I did a search here in the forum and did the same fix, it doesn't work! Every time I reboot, the volume icon is gone again. I can bring it back by doing this....
1. Click the Start button.
2. Click Control Panel.
3. Double-click the Sounds and Audio Devices icon.
4. In the Device volume section of the window, click to select the Place volume control on the taskbar box.
5. Click the OK button.
6. Close the Control Panel window.
The Volume Control icon shows up then, but it is gone again next time I reboot.
So I did this next fix…
Resolve the Sndvol32.exe Issue
1. Press and hold down the key while inserting the Windows XP CD into the CD drive.
2. Click the Start button.
3. Click Run.
4. In the Open: field, type: cmd
5. Click the OK button.
6. At the command prompt, type: X: where X is the drive letter of the CD drive
7. Press the key.
8. At the command prompt, type: CD i386
9. Press the key.
10. At the command prompt, type: expand sndvol32.ex_ c:\windows\system32\sndvol32.exe
11. Press the key.
12. Close the C:\WINDOWS\System32\cmd.exe window.
.....
Well, that doesn't work.
What now?
I thought I was done with this issue, but this is a whole 'nuther PC and a brand-new copy of WinXP!
- the volume icon disappearing happened to me immediately after installed SP2 on several computers. I posted here very soon after SP2 was released to report it. I also talked to MS several times about it (with no results).
The issue for me was never limited to the volume icon. The power icon would also not come up sometiems -- as would other random icons.
I found two solutions.
1) Pause on the welcome screen before logging onto windows. Wait a minute or two for all major HD activity to cease. At this point enter your password/ log-on.
2) If you don't do the above and find the icons are missing, wait till XP fully loads up then log-off and log back on. The long on will be quick as most things are in memory and the icons will likely all be back.
I've noticed comptuters with more ram and faster HDs have the problem less often. - If what NemesisDB posted works for you there is a way to fix it. It sounds weird, but believe me it works as I had to do it myself.
Go to” My network Places” and on the left pane you will see either
“Show icons for Networked UPnP Devices” (which means the icons are actually hidden )
or “Hide icons for Networked UPnP Devices” (which means that the icons are actually shown )
You want the first option. (Which means that you want the icons to be hidden )
If it is not then click it and the icons will be hidden.
Then the 2nd option above will appear instead. - NemesisDB
Here is the current thinking
The main cause appears to have something to do with the UPnP User Interface
It is thought that the UPnP interface does not directly cause the problem, instead there seems to be something wrong with the load order or timing. Perhaps the UPnP interface hogs the system in a way that blocks the systray for too long on some computers. Hence the delayed login allows more time for the systray to load.
The problem is even more prevalent on systems with autologon. The most frequently affected icons seem to be the speaker icon (sound volume) and the power/energy icon.
This has nothing to do with the hide inactive icons settings. The defect shows up when you don't have any icons set for hiding. - good job tracking it to the UPNP issue -- I don't suppose there's a microsoft KB issue on this yet? I have called them before about it but it's been several years.
just for fun, I dug up some of my initial posts:
8/12/2004 (around 2 days after SP2): http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=sw_winxp&message.id=120377
4/5/2005 (the wait fix): http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=sw_winxp&message.id=140601&query.id=662576#M140601 - really any program that uses it. UPNP is never required (even for messenger as far as I know). It just automatically forwards ports through your firewall(s) so you don't have to setup the mappings manually.
I know remote assistance as well as some p2p applications use it. - >"The fix I posted produces the same result without disabling it."
Has that proven totally effective? When I ran into this problem and researched a solution a few months ago, some people were finding they had to totally disable UPnP to cure the problem.
Anything other than Microsoft Messenger that really *needs* to have UPnP enabled?Message Edited by ddeerrff on 10-30-2006 09:39 PM
Mary G
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Posted October 29th, 2006 13:00