On Screen Sound Bar Graph Has Disappeared.

Normally when I adjust the playback sound a bar graph appears
on screen indicating the volume level.
All of a sudden that bar graph is no longer appearing.
I use a Vista laptop.
Sound is fine, just no on screen display of volume level.

 

I honestly don't know the answer to this perplexing problem, but, if you get tired of trying to fix it, there is a program called Volume2 that will give you the Vista style volume bar.

I use this program, and it is excellent. Lots of configurations and skins (Vista Ultimate is one). I have it set up so that when I move the mouse to the bottom of the screen, I can change the volume with the scroll wheel. There are many other options though.

If you google to download this, it installs in Russian. Click on the red white and blue flag to change to English. There is actually support for a large number of languages. The version I have is portable, but I have placed it directly onto the C drive. You can put it in Program Files if you prefer, etc...

 

Greetings, Novice22, and welcome to MajorGeeks.

Just to make sure we're not confusing nomenclature here, have you tried right-clicking your Taskbar, clicking Properties and checking what's allowed in the Notification Area?

 

That is very thoughtful of you and much appreciated.
I would like to get the original back, but I will be keeping your suggestion very close and may well end up using it.

 

Many thanks for the warm welcome.
I have checked Taskbar/properties.
Volume is ticked and there is a little speaker icon in the taskbar
but still no sign of the graph on screen when volume is adjusted.

 

What's the make and model number of your machine? If this is a Dell please include the Service Tag identifier.

 

It's a Medion Model No. MD 96290.
Not a very well known laptop, but has been a good servant over
the years.

 

For reference your drivers can be located here - I plugged your MD 96290 model number into the second box ("full text search") and got a good list of software.

I'm not advocating that you reload the audio driver since your sound is working, but a driver reinstall might bring back the bar graph functionality.

In your Program group or in Control Panel are there any Medion-specific entries? Reason I ask is that some Dells have a program called "Quickset", some HPs have "MediaSmart", Acers have "Launch Manager", etc. that control indicators such as an audio bar graph. Medion might also have such a program - just guessing.

 

No mention of Medion in the programme list in Control Panel, or in All
Programmes list.
Did find a 108 page User Manual but did not find anything helpful there.
Ran a Slim Drivers update check but all drivers are up to date - according to that.
Entered the model number in that second box that you mention, and saw a list of drivers.
Thought I saw 2 sound drivers.
Am a little bit afraid of upsetting anything by downloading a new driver, although I suppose I could do a System Restore first.
I am strongly thinking of phoning Medion tomorrow.
They are in England and I am in Ireland and the machine is old for a laptop
but I did find them very helpful when the laptop was reasonably new.
Really appreciate your help and all the trouble that you are taking.

 

Just for baseline info what happens if you boot into Safe Mode - for that matter do you normally get the bar graph in Safe Mode? If the graph is not normally started in Safe Mode that would indicate that it is indeed controlled by some 3rd-party program.

Agreed about not reinstalling the audio driver software unless necessary - if it ain't broke, yada yada. Also agreed about contacting Medion - this might very well be an issue they've addressed before.

No problem about the help - it's what we do. Good luck.

 

I don't ever recall using sound in safe mode so I am unable to say if the bar graph shows in that mode.
It is an idea and, I believe, well worth a try, so I am off to do that now.
Will be back.

 

Sound was disabled in safe mode.
There was a little red X beside the speaker icon.
Maybe I did something wrong?

 

Interesting. Try this: click Start > Run, type msconfig, click Ok. Click the Startup tab in SysConfig and see what entries are listed there pertaining to anything audio. If you see something obvious and it's disabled try enabling, reboot and see if your symptoms change. Worth a shot.

Also, what Vista Service Pack number are you running and is this a 32-bit or a 64-bit machine?

 

Found that Realtek Audio Manager was unticked so I ticked it.
Also enabled OSD Application - thinking that it might refer to On Screen Display - and also iTunes to see if anything would change, but it didn't.

I really thought that enabling Realtek Audio Manager might get things going again but, unfortunately, no luck.

Last week I was on to another support site regarding a problem with System Restore. Someone suggested that I only needed four items ticked in startup
so that is why the above were disabled.

Am running Vista Service Pack 2, 32-bit.

I really think that your suggestion was well worth a shot and, for a few brief minutes, I honestly thought that I had found the solution.

 

Maybe this is a silly question, but did you reboot after ticking the setting? Sometimes I have found that reboots can help with a stubborn settings change...

 

Yes, a box came up afterwards asking if I wanted to restart and I said yes.
I don't regard it as a silly question as I later felt that I should have mentioned
the reboot in my post.
Thanks for raising the matter.
It could have made the difference.

 

Success!
And it's all thanks to you and to your hard work.

Phoned Medion this morning and was very disappointed with the response.
They didn't really want to know.
Felt quite despondent as I was running out of options.
But I strongly felt last night that you were on to something with the start up list.
I had no joy with it then, but I decided to check every single box in it today and, yes, there it was - the sound bar graph!
I was left with what seemed like millions of ticked boxes and, by a process of elimination, it turned out that the item I needed was Wistron Hotkey App/HKLM software. Would never have guessed that that was the one.
So now, everything is back to normal and I am deeply grateful for all your help.
Even when things looked very bleak you stuck to the task.
Sincere thanks, too, to everyone who contributed to the post.

 

Excellent news - good job. Glad you got things sorted and thanks for the feedback.

 

Great to have it working again.
Really appreciate all your help.