[LawScholar]

Hello everyone.

Recently (about for the last week) the basic services on my program bar have vanished. My volume controls, network controls, and battery/power controls next to the clock are gone. In an attempt to regain my volume control (speakers and volume buttons on the media center were still functional) I uninstalled my speakers completely and reinstalled them with the newest drivers. Now my speakers are not functional at all and all my controls are still gone.

I am running Windows Vista Home Premium SP2 32-bit. I operate an HP Pavilion dv6000 Entertainment Notebook that is a little over two years old. I very rigorously run Avira, CCleaner, and Advanced Systemcare Free about weekly, and Defraggler biweekly, so I have never had any issues with this computer whatsoever.

I believe my most recent modification to the computer was to download and install Vista SP2. That HAS been giving me a message saying Avira is incompatible with it, which I have not got around to fixing (Probably I will download AVG). I cannot see how this would interfere with sound, networking, and battery however.

My audo driver is Conexant High Definition Audio

Also, I recently ordered Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade (18 bucks because I am a student, woo!) and should get it on Wednesday. Do you think this will fix the problems automatically?

Any and all help would be most appreciated. Thank you.



-Cameron

[circe801]

well, lawscholar, i'm having a similar problem as far as getting my speakers to work [AND why they stopped in the first place--i did something somewhat similar to what you did], however, i CAN actually help you get your icons back...

open task manager [ctrl+alt+del]. find 'explorer.exe', then hit 'end process'. now, the entire taskbar will disappear--fret not. go to 'file>new task' [run] and type 'explorer.exe' [without part quotes, of course...]. your taskbar will reappear, and the missing icons SHOULD reappear... if not, i don't know--then the 'real' experts will have to lend a hand, as they surely will due to your other troubles...

glad i could finally do something here [besides queries]--
circe801

[LawScholar]

Thank you for your help, circe801. Unfortunately, that did not resolve my issues. I did it twice and the taskbar did disappear and reappear, but without any icons.

[lunarlander]

Right click on the Task bar and choose Properties. Then choose Notification Areas tab. Then choose Icons Customize button. In that window it will list all your apps. Choose whether you want to hide, show, or 'hide when inactive".

[LawScholar]

lunarlander, that was some progress. Under the icon menu you told me to go to, there was no power, volume, or network. However, on the menu right before, the Notification Area tab, there are checkboxes for system icons, with Clock, Volume, Network, and Power. Power was unchecked and is now checked, so I have it back. However, Volume and Network are greyed out and cannot be checked.

I tried a Registry Edit fix I found online, going into the registry and looking for any items that said HIDE_ICONS and stuff like that, but none were there.

[LawScholar]

lunar, you fixed it! After I tried what you tried and set everything to default in the registry, I rebooted and it fixed it!

Thank you so much TechGuy forums and lunarlandar and circe801 specifically.