Solved Volume Mixer disabled and cannot re-enable

[delphinous]

recently my volume mixer, on my taskbar, has disappeared. when i open up the systems icons customization, at
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Notification Area Icons\System Icons
it shows the volume there, but disabled and greyed out so that i cannot re-enable it. i have repeatedly rebooted my computer, and it doesn't change. i cannot adjust the overall volume on my computer, or the volume of individual programs. is there anyway to re-enable it, or some other way to open up the mixer as a work around?

 

[fireberd]

Uninstall the sound in the Device Manager, DO NOT uninstall the driver. Restart the PC and when Windows starts it will detect and reinstall the Sound. This fixes a lot of problems and may take care of yours.

 

[delphinous]

i tried it, unfortunately while it put the speakers back on when i rebooted, it didn't correct the sound/volume mixer. the two options i had in the deice manager were the sound drivers, and the hardware speakers. i did it on the speakers. thanks for trying, do you have any other ideas?

 

[fireberd]

What sound driver do you have? Do you have the correct driver for your sound hardware or only the generic, basic function, Windows installed "High Definition Audio" driver/device? If you only have the High Definition, get the correct hardware sound driver (e.g. if you have IDT sound chip get the IDT driver, if you have Realtek sound chip the Realtek driver, etc).

 

[delphinous]

i have an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M with the associated driver. and it is up to date

 

[fireberd]

The NVIDIA is ONLY for HDMI audio. You have a different driver for the PC audio.

 

[brooksndun]

I apologize if this isn't related.. but..

Not able to adjust volume levels or open the volume mixer control - Microsoft Community

or

PC Hell: Volume Control - There Are No Active Mixer Devices Available