How do I turn the system icon for sound on (currently off; greyed out)

For some unknown reason, the system icon for sound no longer displays on my task bar. I went into Properties, Notification area 'Customize', Turn System Icons On or Off, see that the Volume is turned off, but it's greyed out and I can't turn it on. I can't figure out how to activate this switch so I can flip it on. Anyone know why this might have occurred and how to fix it? Thanks!

Hi, if you're lucky a simple restart might fix that according to this:
System Tray- Volume grayed out - Windows 7 Help Forums
but there's also this for Win 10:
Windows 10 System Icons in Notification Area Are Grayed Out

Did the sound ever work on the laptop under Windows 10?

I've gotten a grayed-out control when there were no drivers installed for the sound device.

If that's your problem, I'm not sure what to suggest. The latest drivers at HP are for Windows 7:

http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp59001-59500/sp59154.exe

(Dated from 2012). You could try them, perhaps installing them in compatibility mode.

dalchina said:

Hi, if you're lucky a simple restart might fix that according to this:
System Tray- Volume grayed out - Windows 7 Help Forums
but there's also this for Win 10:
Windows 10 System Icons in Notification Area Are Grayed Out

Thanks. Restarting didn't do anything. I also followed the path laid out in the 'Windows 10 System Icons in notification Area Are Greyed Out' link.

1. Hold down the Windows Key and press the “R” key the bring up the Run window.
2. Type “regedit“, then select “OK“.
3. Navigate through the registry to the following location:
   
   • HKEY_CURRENT_USER
   • Software
   • Classes
   • Local Settings
   • Software
   • Microsoft
   • Windows
   • CurrentVersion
   • TrayNotify
   
   
4. Look for two values. One named “iconstreams” and “PastIconStream“. Right-click and select “Delete” each value to remove them from the registry.

Everything was going fine until I clicked on the 'CurrentVersion' folder. 'TrayNotify' wasn't listed at all. The only folder displaying was 'Deployment.'

bobkn said:

Did the sound ever work on the laptop under Windows 10?

I've gotten a grayed-out control when there were no drivers installed for the sound device.

If that's your problem, I'm not sure what to suggest. The latest drivers at HP are for Windows 7:

http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp59001-59500/sp59154.exe

(Dated from 2012). You could try them, perhaps installing them in compatibility mode.

Thanks, but link not found. Not Found

The requested URL /pub/softpaq/sp59001-59500/sp59154.exe was not found on this server.

bobkn said:

Did the sound ever work on the laptop under Windows 10?

I've gotten a grayed-out control when there were no drivers installed for the sound device.

If that's your problem, I'm not sure what to suggest. The latest drivers at HP are for Windows 7:

http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp59001-59500/sp59154.exe

(Dated from 2012). You could try them, perhaps installing them in compatibility mode.

Yes, I did used to have a sound icon after the installation of Windows 10. All of a sudden, it wasn't there any longer. Again, I see the toggle is greyed out to flip it on again. I just don't know how to ungrey it so I can activate the icon again. Puzzling.

tohashome said:

Thanks, but link not found. Not Found

The requested URL /pub/softpaq/sp59001-59500/sp59154.exe was not found on this server.

Sorry. I usually check links to verify that they work before allowing a post to stand, but I didn't do it this time.

The link at the HP support site appears to not work. I didn't find a good link to sp59154.exe, but it may be out there.