XP volume icon trouble

  • Thread starter Thread starter seanfromlj
  • Start date Start date
This can happen if your Sound card goes to "Phantom" status is Device
Manager. XP knows it (Sound) exists, but considers the device to not
be present in the current/active hardware profile. The entry for the card
or motherboard based sound will appear in diminished tone or grayed
out. Sometimes you'll have multiple instances of the sound card and the
phantom entries need to be removed.
To see all phantoms, you need to add a System level environment
variable DevMgr_Show_NonPresent_Devices
and set it's value = 1
*Adding this variable is done via System Properties, Advanced (TAB)
Environment Variables button
Then open Device Manager, Click View, Tic/Check "Show Hidden
Devices". Expand the Sound category and look for instances of your
sound card/device. Right Click each one and take Uninstall. It's normal
to see a fairly long list of other "Phantoms", such as Microsoft Kernel....
or Microsoft streaming... These entries should be left alone as they are
present but not actively used.
 
Ok it's called Realtek High Definition Audio. There's one that was
there from the beginning and another that appeared after the whole
"phantom" thing. I uninstall both of them? And do I reinstall both or
just one?
 
I won't need to reinstall either of them? If I uninstall them and
reboot, is there any way to get them back in case it doesn't work? I
don't have an XP disc or anything like that...
 
Once you install a specific driver - that code is placed in Windows
so that when that same device is re-detected (enumerated) XP
has and knows where the drivers are and installs them automatically.
When you reboot, it (SigmaTel) will be redetected and you should
NOT be prompted to supply the drivers.
 
I did it and it said that it found the driver and everything BUT the
icon is still missing and my system sounds still don't work.
 
Then you need to install the latest Chipset driver package for your
motherboard ( Intel, VIA, SiS, nVidia or ATI).
 
I went to the Intel website and got all the available updates. All it
did was something about the graphics.
 
have you tried , Right Click Your Taskbar > goto properties ,> Goto Customize
,>Scroll down to past Items ,See if the Volume control is there and change
its status to always show ?
 
I tried that several times. I think the key thing to do is after you tell
the computer to always show the volume control icon, hit apply then ok.
After that is completed, restart your computer. If the problem isn't fixed,
go into your control panel and sounds and see if you can find a place where
it asks if you want the icon on the taskbar. Worked for me. Before I had
done the properties thing, I had tried the sounds thing. I had no options.
So, I'm really thinking that the taskbar properties is the first place you
should turn to.
 
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