I have a Dell XPS 8500, with Windows 7 Professional, SP1,
with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
and Windows firewall.

Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB
Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
Ram 12.0 GB
System type : 64-bit operating system

I also have

I have a Dell Optiplex 780 Tower, with Windows 7 Professional,
SP1, with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
and Windows firewall.

Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB
Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
System type : 64-bit operating system

and (external hard drives)

(8500)
WD BLACK SERIES WD2003FZEX 2TB 7200
RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
Hard Drive

(780)
Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB
Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"
Internal Hard Drive

The problem is with the 8500 volume icon which is
usually on the task bar but it's gone now. I haven't
done anything unusual and I can still raise and lower
volume but the icon/controls are gone.

So how do I recover them?

Thanks,
Robert

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

I meant the speaker icon of course.

Robert

On 10/23/2021 2:57 AM, Robert in CA wrote:
> I have a Dell XPS 8500, with Windows 7 Professional, SP1,
> with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
> and Windows firewall.
>
> Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB
> Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
> Ram 12.0 GB
> System type : 64-bit operating system
>
> I also have
>
> I have a Dell Optiplex 780 Tower,  with Windows 7 Professional,
> SP1, with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
> and Windows firewall.
>
> Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB
> Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
> System type : 64-bit operating system
>
> and (external hard drives)
>
> (8500)
> WD BLACK SERIES WD2003FZEX 2TB 7200
> RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
> Hard Drive
>
> (780)
> Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB
> Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"
> Internal Hard Drive
>
>
>
> The problem is with the 8500 volume icon which is
> usually on the task bar but it's gone now. I haven't
> done anything unusual and I can still raise and lower
> volume but the icon/controls are gone.
>
> So how do I recover them?
>
> Thanks,
> Robert

Open Control Panels.

In the upper right corner, is "Search Control Panels" in gray text.

Type the letter "n" in there for "Notification Icons"

In that section of the search result should be an item:

"Show or hide volume (speaker) icon on the taskbar"

It's the second item down, out of "Clock Volume Network Power Action_Center" as choices.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/9QSQr7kH/speaker-icon.gif

Since your vol_up and vol_down still work, it probably isn't
the Windows Audio service gone missing.

( https://superuser.com/questions/205520/on-windows-7-my-volume-icon-is-missing-from-the-system-tray )

Paul

Hmmm I opened Control Panel but I do not see any text in gray
in the upper right corner?

https://postimg.cc/H8ywFbyt

I did follow the procedure more or less in your second link with
no effect. Then in the same video it says if that didn't work it said
to go into Task Manager, then click Processes and find the
Explorer.exe and delete it. I didn't do it and posted the problem
here instead.

In any case, the speaker icon returned. How can it disappear
and then return by itself?

Robert

I was referring to another video I saw on the subject.

Robert

On 10/23/2021 1:32 PM, Robert in CA wrote:
> Hmmm I opened Control Panel but I do not see any text in gray
> in the upper right corner?
>
> https://postimg.cc/H8ywFbyt
>
> I did follow the procedure more or less in your second link with
> no effect. Then in the same video it says if that didn't work it said
> to go into Task Manager, then click Processes and find the
> Explorer.exe and delete it. I didn't do it and posted the problem
> here instead.
>
> In any case, the speaker icon returned. How can it disappear
> and then return by itself?
>
> Robert
>

Perhaps the first time an application (the thing playing the video)
sent audio samples to the speakers, that "woke up" the Windows Audio
service and friends ?

Paul

Perhaps, but I play documentary video's on YouTube all the time
and this is the first time this has happened. Very strange.

Robert

It happened again today.

The speaker icon should be on the task bar
next to the Network icon and Action center
icon but it's not there.

https://postimg.cc/dkKF6SKV

The speakers still function and I can raise and
lower volume but don't you think this is strange?

I checked Task Manager and I'm the only User
logged on.

Robert

On Fri, 29 Oct 2021 10:03:52 -0700 (PDT), Robert in CA
<magineer02@yahoo.com> wrote:

>It happened again today.
>
>The speaker icon should be on the task bar
>next to the Network icon and Action center
>icon but it's not there.
>
>https://postimg.cc/dkKF6SKV
>
>The speakers still function and I can raise and
>lower volume but don't you think this is strange?
>
>I checked Task Manager and I'm the only User
>logged on.
>
>Robert

Right click taskbar ---> properties --> make sure "hide
inactive icons" is un-checked.

And/or
Control Panel --> audio devices --> volume tab
Make sure "place an icon on taskbar" is checked

(actual words might be different --> my XP is "foreign")
All I can think of ATM
[]'s
--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012
Google Fuchsia - 2021

It came back all on it's own once again.

https://postimg.cc/xX6h3dys

Robert

On 10/29/2021 10:43 PM, Robert in CA wrote:
> It came back all on it's own once again.
>
> https://postimg.cc/xX6h3dys
>
> Robert
>

Mine has the hardware driver, rather than just the
generic hdaudio.

https://i.postimg.cc/yY4Lgbpr/Real-Tek-Driver.gif

Something is interfering with yours, but what ?

The simplest explanation would be the Windows Audio
service exiting, and then restarting itself. But
when a service restarts, it usually does that pretty
quickly.

Whereas if there is a lengthy outage, it means
some "dependency" of the service is not being met.
Like, another service it depends on. (And not RPC,
since if RPC dies, the OS dies.)

It's too bad we couldn't rely on the Eventvwr.msc
to record the events leading up to stuff like this.

Paul

It happened again today,..

Here's my configuration:

https://postimg.cc/47Z2m20C

I sure have my share of some strange off
the wall problems.

Robert

On 10/30/2021 4:44 PM, Robert in CA wrote:
> It happened again today,..
>
> Here's my configuration:
>
> https://postimg.cc/47Z2m20C
>
> I sure have my share of some strange off
> the wall problems.
>
> Robert
>

The next time it disappears, you can check these.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-audio-and-windows-audio-end-point-not/fcb555a9-cc8b-40ab-9874-44206001922a

"Windows Audio
Windows Audio Endpoint Builder
"

There's also a dependency on Multimedia Class Scheduler.
But with my foggy memory, I don't remember if that one
fails for some good reason or not.

But as far as RPC goes, that one can't fail, because
everything in the OS depends on it. You would have
more than a disappearing icon, if RPC failed. RPC
is Remote Procedure Call, but just like 30 years ago,
it also answers all sorts of Local Procedure Calls too
(127.0.0.1) and has become indispensible to machine
operation. The name has an "optional" ring to it,
but it really isn't optional because of the local part
of its duties.

Paul

I forgot to give you this:

https://postimg.cc/0bk4PNM8

I followed the link you gave:

https://postimg.cc/PLszf63m

https://postimg.cc/wtX51hZn

At present the icon is gone again.

Robert

On 10/30/2021 5:51 PM, Robert in CA wrote:
> I forgot to give you this:
>
> https://postimg.cc/0bk4PNM8
>
> I followed the link you gave:
>
> https://postimg.cc/PLszf63m
>
> https://postimg.cc/wtX51hZn
>
> At present the icon is gone again.
>
> Robert
>
>

The only additional thing here, was checking the notification icon setting.
That's in Control Panels and has the word Notification in it.

https://www.drivethelife.com/uploadfiles/20170524/turn-on-system-icons-volume-icon-missing-windows-10.png

But that would not account for it disappearing and reappearing at random.

Normally, for Services, they will do three retries before giving up.
In which case, at some point the icon would disappear and not come back
if it was a Services issue.

Based on your description, "some software is messing with you".
It would take a purposeful application bent on destruction to
do this. Most of the other mechanisms would eventually settle
down to a "not working" condition (until you rebooted).

And I don't think the Windows 7 Health Report is good enough
to shed light on this.

When the icon disappears, you can try the Troubleshooting control panel.
And select the "Troubleshoot Audio Playback". But the reason I
didn't select this in the first place, is I consider the odds low,
that it would notice what was going on.

While it could be related to a lack of free RAM, I would think
you'd notice other symptoms on the machine besides that icon
disappearing. Firefox now, can eat all the system memory on its
own, but if it did, I would expect some notification to appear
to that effect (low on memory).

Paul

I checked the link you gave and this is what it says:

https://postimg.cc/nMR2mzyd

I also checked for trouble shooting but I could not find
any 'Troubleshoot Audio Playback'.

Are you saying that this is a deliberate attempt to destroy my computer?

What do you think we should do with the the speaker going on/off
even though it doesn't affect the sound or my keyboard control of
raising or lowering it. Do you think this will escalate? Maybe we should try
a System restore? or Mrimg? I'm scheduled to create a new one this Monday
11-1-21.

At present the icon is on the task bar . Also I haven't added any new
programs which would of caused this. This just started happening on
it's own. I do recall getting a host malware several days ago but I
quarantined it and ran the scan again which came up clean and also
just ran a scan before posting this.

Thoughts/Suggestions?
Robert

Just curious, how could it back a lack of free RAM
when I have 12GB of RAM?

Robert

On 10/31/2021 3:26 AM, Robert in CA wrote:
> Just curious, how could it back a lack of free RAM
> when I have 12GB of RAM?
>
> Robert
>

Firefox can use up all the memory on the machine.
This is a function of Javascript code on a web page.

Presumably some nifty new function was added to make
Javascript more flexible, and the end result was
commercial web pages did "a little bit too much of
a good thing". But because the responsible parties
won't talk about it, and Mozilla is slapping
a bandaid on it, we'll never know for sure.

The plan is, at some point soon, Mozilla will
unload a tab which uses excessive memory, then
when the user opens the tab again, the tab
will reload the Javascript code and carry on.

A question would be, why am I not hearing of Chrome
browsers running the system out of RAM ? If Chrome
can handle these web pages without making a mess,
perhaps Mozilla will one day figure it out too :-)

But until I see an explanation somewhere, as to what
is going on, I can't say more than that. That Firefox,
when a tab is resting in it, at some point the code
seems to go nuts and the memory usage goes up.

If you watch the memory usage of Firefox, it "wobbles".
Maybe one second, it is 1GB. The next second it is 1.1GB.
Then it goes down again to 1GB again. What just happened
is "garbage collection". The twits, evaluate the code
over and over again in real time. So when the memory
usage has gone nuts, presumably something the
Javascript is doing, uses a feature of Firefox that
"leaks". The garbage collector is only allowed to
reclaim what it thinks is unused RAM. If, during the
continuous re-evaluation of what is displayed, the
memory is not free() by the Javascript, then the memory
usage goes up and up, and the garbage collector
can't make it go down (like normal).

The Mozilla bandaid, is to add a "memory quota" to the
tab. That's their workaround for now. If system memory
is getting low, the tab will be "dumped", a kind of
"gross garbage collection".

But you have to ask yourself, where did this leaky
behavior of Javascript come from ? What new feature
made it profitable for websites to do this to
client browsers ? Dunno. The people doing it, probably
know they're doing it. Where is the profit ?

Paul

On 10/31/2021 3:22 AM, Robert in CA wrote:
> I checked the link you gave and this is what it says:
>
> https://postimg.cc/nMR2mzyd
>
> I also checked for trouble shooting but I could not find
> any 'Troubleshoot Audio Playback'.
>
> Are you saying that this is a deliberate attempt to destroy my computer?
>
> What do you think we should do with the the speaker going on/off
> even though it doesn't affect the sound or my keyboard control of
> raising or lowering it. Do you think this will escalate? Maybe we should try
> a System restore? or Mrimg? I'm scheduled to create a new one this Monday
> 11-1-21.
>
> At present the icon is on the task bar . Also I haven't added any new
> programs which would of caused this. This just started happening on
> it's own. I do recall getting a host malware several days ago but I
> quarantined it and ran the scan again which came up clean and also
> just ran a scan before posting this.
>
> Thoughts/Suggestions?
> Robert

A rollback might be a good idea, depending on how long
this has been going on (covered by a backup of the system
before it started doing this).

The Mrimg would be higher quality material than an
easily exploited System Restore point :-)

The behavior is not "normal computer malfunction" behavior.
If this was an OS problem, it would normally get stuck in
some final condition, rather than fading in and out like that.

It's hard to imagine a natural phenomenon to make it do that.
That's all.

Paul

This is the first time I've heard of this of using up memory.
Is this part of their effort to collect biometric data?

Here's what Task Manager shows:

https://postimg.cc/GHTYc7YJ

https://postimg.cc/RWQWFj0f

https://postimg.cc/3W4WpyR3

https://postimg.cc/mt3LN7GW

https://postimg.cc/zHZNTGtf

https://postimg.cc/JHcfJcHT

So you suggest an Mrimg restore? Do you suggest the
last Mrimg made so I don't loose as much? I'll have to
transfer some folders files that I've been working on so
I don't loose them. Here's your previous instructions,
do you want to add anything?

https://postimg.cc/t7CwmPPH

https://postimg.cc/wR7WxXcy

https://postimg.cc/hXFCg7Jv

https://postimg.cc/F17GLx31

https://postimg.cc/WdP7xLKJ

https://postimg.cc/H8yQPB92

https://postimg.cc/LqQL9ryD

https://postimg.cc/SYCMGjm1

https://postimg.cc/Js1kb1vK

https://postimg.cc/dDrkpkK4

https://postimg.cc/rK9dyBs4

https://postimg.cc/678T0T0V

https://postimg.cc/HV3x1bv4

https://postimg.cc/K4DL4ks4

https://postimg.cc/c60tq14W

https://postimg.cc/4KpyMqDn

After restoring, then I think it's a good idea to make
an update.

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

On 10/31/2021 4:15 PM, Robert in CA wrote:
> This is the first time I've heard of this of using up memory.
> Is this part of their effort to collect biometric data?
>
> Here's what Task Manager shows:
>
> https://postimg.cc/GHTYc7YJ
>
> https://postimg.cc/RWQWFj0f
>
> https://postimg.cc/3W4WpyR3
>
> https://postimg.cc/mt3LN7GW
>
> https://postimg.cc/zHZNTGtf
>
> https://postimg.cc/JHcfJcHT
>
> So you suggest an Mrimg restore? Do you suggest the
> last Mrimg made so I don't loose as much? I'll have to
> transfer some folders files that I've been working on so
> I don't loose them. Here's your previous instructions,
> do you want to add anything?
>
> https://postimg.cc/t7CwmPPH
>
> https://postimg.cc/wR7WxXcy
>
> https://postimg.cc/hXFCg7Jv
>
> https://postimg.cc/F17GLx31
>
> https://postimg.cc/WdP7xLKJ
>
> https://postimg.cc/H8yQPB92
>
> https://postimg.cc/LqQL9ryD
>
> https://postimg.cc/SYCMGjm1
>
> https://postimg.cc/Js1kb1vK
>
> https://postimg.cc/dDrkpkK4
>
> https://postimg.cc/rK9dyBs4
>
> https://postimg.cc/678T0T0V
>
> https://postimg.cc/HV3x1bv4
>
> https://postimg.cc/K4DL4ks4
>
> https://postimg.cc/c60tq14W
>
> https://postimg.cc/4KpyMqDn
>
> After restoring, then I think it's a good idea to make
> an update.
>
> Thoughts/suggestions?
> Robert
>

Weird. I see a good amount of RAM being used, but (as usual)
the Task Manager values for Processes, don't add up.

Yes, of course you back up your Downloads folder, your Bookmarks,
your email database, anything that the .mrimg restore is going
to be wiping out. Those kinds of items should be copied somewhere
safe, before the Macrium Restore begins.

Paul

I saved all my data on a Patriot flash key and made a system restore
point before starting. I used the 10-2-21 Mrimg to recover; during the
procedure it had a pop-up to run it in PE mode;' I forgot it had to run in
the PE environment so I selected it and the restore procedure continued
with no issues.

So all is good so far and I have the speaker icon; let's hope it doesn't
start disappearing. I'll be sure to let you know if it does. I had a Macrium
update and when I checked for Windows updates I had a Malicious
maleware update. Is there anything else you would recommend doing?
I think I'll wait a bit before making a new Mrimg update just to make sure.

Thoughts/Suggestions?
Robert

On 11/1/2021 1:30 AM, Robert in CA wrote:
> I saved all my data on a Patriot flash key and made a system restore
> point before starting. I used the 10-2-21 Mrimg to recover; during the
> procedure it had a pop-up to run it in PE mode;' I forgot it had to run in
> the PE environment so I selected it and the restore procedure continued
> with no issues.
>
> So all is good so far and I have the speaker icon; let's hope it doesn't
> start disappearing. I'll be sure to let you know if it does. I had a Macrium
> update and when I checked for Windows updates I had a Malicious
> maleware update. Is there anything else you would recommend doing?
> I think I'll wait a bit before making a new Mrimg update just to make sure.
>
> Thoughts/Suggestions?
> Robert
>

I can't think of much, other than making sure your personal files are safe.

The Windows update is likely to be the MRT monthly scan.
It does a quick scan of the Windows folder, using signature
definitions for the fifty most popular pieces of malware.

Paul

Things seems to be OK and I've already started updating
all the folders I saved. Let's hope this takes care of it but
that was sure strange.

Thankfully we had the Mrimgs/external HD in place that you
helped me set-up. I'll let you know if anything happens.

Thanks,
Robert

I also made a System Restore point noting
the Mrmg (10-2-21) used and that all good.

Thanks again,
Robert