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So unexpectedly my volume control is missing from the system tray on Windows 7. I goto the start menu and type volume and choose "Show or hide volume (speaker) icon on the taskbar" and it's disabled in there and set to off. I then click "customize notification icons" at the bottom and on the list that shows up, I see at the bottom "Volume" with the dropbox icon over it.

Does dropbox obliterate my volume control on accident? Anyone else have anything like this? Got any other ideas for me to try?

forgot to mention: All the volume functions work, it's just the icon that's missing. I can control the volume by the keyboard or through the actual volume control (by pulling up the control panel widget). I just don't have the icon on the systemtray. All the rest of the system works tho.

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Can you still hear anything? Is the device still present in the device manager? – Tog Oct 31 '10 at 20:12
Sorry, yes, I meant to mention that: The volume control still works by the keyboard and everything else like that. I'll update the question. – jcolebrand Oct 31 '10 at 20:24
Wow, with 2500 views since October this must be a hot topic for Microsoft to address? – jcolebrand May 7 at 16:06
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1 Answer

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This can happen from time to time, but it is very rare and usually a restart will fix it.

The three solutions to try are:

  1. Restart the Audio Service.

  2. Restart Explorer.exe.

  3. Restart the computer.

For Number one, Click the Start Orb, Right click on Computer, Click on Manage. Navigate to Services and Applications > Services, Right click on Windows Audio and choose Restart

alt text

For Number two, Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete, and go to Task Manager, go to the Processes tab and find Explorer.exe and right click then choose Kill. Make sure you do not have any file operations (copy/move etc.) going. It should automatically restart, if it doesn't, then in Task Manager, choose File > Run and type Explorer, click ok and it should be back.

alt text

For number three, well, I don't think you need instructions.

I hope this helps, please let me know which one worked for you, I have tried to give the answer in order of convenience to make it easier for you.

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~ Thanks for the response. I'm not in front of the PC now, but I'll try later. I normally hibernate the machine, and I'm familiar with the methods given (restarting the shell, restarting the services) but is this a known issue with hibernating somehow? Once I've rebooted the machine (instead of hibernating) I'll let you know for sure if it did or did not fix it. – jcolebrand Nov 1 '10 at 15:21
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@drachenstern The restart explorer option should fix it (It has every time I have seen the issue), I have never been able to track down what causes it as I only seem to see it once every two months or so and I do not think it is any one thing - but it is easily fixable. I do not think it is hibernate as I would see it a lot more often. – William Hilsum Nov 1 '10 at 15:36
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