Recovering Volume Controls - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Derwood · 10-28-2008, 10:18 AM

Every once again my task bar crashes (Vista) and when it restarts, I lose my volume control icon in the system tray (and my manual volume control dial is rendered useless). Is there a way to relaunch the volume control without restarting the entire computer?

Frosstbyte · 10-28-2008, 10:25 AM

I have this problem with XP and I've never been able to figure out a way. I've just started using my mac laptop for most of my audio needs so I don't have to worry about it. Mine seems to stem largely from the computer not being able to find the onboard sound card for some nonspecific reason.

Vigilante · 10-28-2008, 02:49 PM

In XP you could try going to the properties box for the taskbar and choosing to hide, and then unhide the audio icon. Or try "choose defaults".

In vista you could pull up the properties box and try that, but first I would try unchecking, applying, then checking the volume icon "always show" item under the notification area tab.

The explorer process is weird like that. If it doesn't work, you might try opening the task manager and killing explorer, then restarting it in the File/New Task "Run" box by typing explorer and hitting enter.

Either way, I would try getting the OS disk, create a copy of it on the machine, then slipstreaming any service packs into it so it matches the current OS as closely as possible, then repairing the OS with the new disk. That might fix any corruption issues that are popping up. Also run chkdsk /F from a command prompt, before you repair, if you decide to.

Lasereth · 10-29-2008, 09:50 AM

Next time it does it go to start, run, type in services.msc, scroll down to Windows audio, right click on it and go to start or restart service.

10-28-2008, 10:18 AM	#1 (permalink)
Derwood Who You Crappin? Location: Everywhere and Nowhere	Recovering Volume Controls Every once again my task bar crashes (Vista) and when it restarts, I lose my volume control icon in the system tray (and my manual volume control dial is rendered useless). Is there a way to relaunch the volume control without restarting the entire computer?

10-28-2008, 02:49 PM	#3 (permalink)
Vigilante Broken Arrow Location: US	In XP you could try going to the properties box for the taskbar and choosing to hide, and then unhide the audio icon. Or try "choose defaults". In vista you could pull up the properties box and try that, but first I would try unchecking, applying, then checking the volume icon "always show" item under the notification area tab. The explorer process is weird like that. If it doesn't work, you might try opening the task manager and killing explorer, then restarting it in the File/New Task "Run" box by typing explorer and hitting enter. Either way, I would try getting the OS disk, create a copy of it on the machine, then slipstreaming any service packs into it so it matches the current OS as closely as possible, then repairing the OS with the new disk. That might fix any corruption issues that are popping up. Also run chkdsk /F from a command prompt, before you repair, if you decide to. __________________ We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. -Winston Churchill

10-28-2008, 10:25 AM	#2 (permalink)
Frosstbyte Winter is Coming Location: The North	I have this problem with XP and I've never been able to figure out a way. I've just started using my mac laptop for most of my audio needs so I don't have to worry about it. Mine seems to stem largely from the computer not being able to find the onboard sound card for some nonspecific reason.

10-29-2008, 09:50 AM	#4 (permalink)
Lasereth Knight of the Old Republic Location: Winston-Salem, NC	Next time it does it go to start, run, type in services.msc, scroll down to Windows audio, right click on it and go to start or restart service.