volume icon gone

[turner]

Help, I've lost the volume control icon in the taskbar. I've checked control panel, multimedia and the ability to check the box to show the icon is greyed out. How do I get this back. I've searched the forum but was unable to find the answer. Windows 98se. Hope someone has an answer . Thanks.

[Miz]

The following procedure fixes the problem most of the time:

First, uninstall and reinstall Multimedia:

1. Click on Start-Settings-Control Panel
2. Open Add/Remove Programs
3. Click on the Windows Setup tab
4. In the list of installed components uncheck Multimedia
5. Click Apply
6. Once the files are uninstalled, recheck Multimedia and click OK (it may ask for your Windows CD so have it handy)
7. After Multimedia has been reinstalled, check to see if the volume control option is now working

If that didn't fix things, the next thing to try is to remove the sound card in Safe Mode and let Windows reinstall it:

1. Reboot and as your computer reboots repeatedly tap the F8 key on your keyboard (once per second) until a Startup menu is displayed
2. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to choose Safe Mode, press Enter on your keyboard.
3. Right-click on My Computer and choose Properties
4. Click on the Device Manager tab
5. Click on the plus sign beside "Sound, Video, and Game Controllers"
6. Remove all items under this category by selecting the desired item and clicking the Remove button
7. Once all items have been removed and Sound, Video, and Game Controllers no longer appears in the list, close Device Manager
8. Reboot

As windows reboots it should redetect the sound card and reinstall the drivers.