Hello all,

I have a Precision M6300 that was shipped with XP SP2 32-bit installed.  Ever since the day I got it I've been finding that often on bootup, almost all of the icons I expect to see in the taskbar notification area are missing.  ie. XP Power Meter, Windows Defender, QuickSet and many more.

The aforementioned programs are running in the task list, it's just that their icons are not being displayed.  The only icons that reliably show up are the Ethernet interface and my Avast A/V scanner.  Starting new processes eg. Pidgin or Outlook does show their icons there.

It does this every 2-3 boots.  If I reboot several times it eventually gets things right and the icons show up.  This is getting to be a real pain; eg. since the power meter won't show I can't tell how much battery life I have left.  And since the removable devices icon doesn't show, I can't Stop plugged devices like USB drives before disconnecting them.

This Precision has done this since the day it was delivered. I've updated all the drivers from Dell, and just updated to XP SP3, but it's just done it again.

Anyone seen this before?  Any clues or tips?  I shouldn't have to wipe a factory install and start over.

Thanks,

Carl