Sound, battery taskbar icon doesnt show up at startup

i have this problem from last few days, the sound and battery icon doesnt show up at startup, i tried to make them appear by going to the control panel and could do it, but after restart they again disappear. the balloon saying "new windows updates are available" is also is not coming these days.
i thought my antivirus (avast) or firewall (sygate) may be causing prob, and stopped them from coming at startup, but that didnt help.
my is a Dell inspiron 2200 laptop with xp.
please help !

 

It may be malware-related. Go to malware forum and do this:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407