Windows Sound Bar Icon will not allow sound to be adjusted

Hello All,

I need help with an odd sound bug on my machine. I get an icon that appears on my desktop that pops up at random times after a restart. Sometimes its a few minutes, other times it appears after an hour or longer. I will provide a picture of the icon so you can see what it is. The problem is once it pops up, I can no longer adjust my sound and my sound is muted. The icon is particularly annoying because it cannot be minimized or closed so I have to navigate around it as it blocks access to menus on windows.

Here is the little bugger:



I contacted Microsoft after I ran their troubleshooting program and the rep told me to contact my Mobo manufacturer which is AS Rock. The rep at AS Rock told me to reinstall the driver from Realtek which I did. Here is the link they gave me:

Realtek HD Audio 2.82 driver download

When the updated driver did not work, ASRock told me to install a dedicated sound card like Soundblaster because my Motherboard\Build in driver for Realtek is not compatible with Windows 10.

I have been running Windows 10 for at least a year, maybe 2 and this popup has only appeared in the last 3 months. Here is a list of what I think is causing the popup. In no particular order.

1. One of the Windows 10 updates
2. I installed the Windows 10 App that links my cell phone to my PC and then removed it as it was awful
3. Some wacky spyware

Of the 3 suspects, #2 seems most plausible too me. I noticed that my cell phone at times would disable audio and whenever I tried to turn the audio up, my cell phone would reduce the audio until it was muted. I did connect my phone to my PC so who knows what garbage it unloaded on my PC. I have since removed the awful Windows 10 app and any references to my phone under Bluetooth devices. I believe I even ran some total clean up app to remove the Windows 10 Phone app.

I did go into Device Manager and I noticed that there are two instances of "High Definition Audio" under sound, video and game controllers. Here is a snapshot:



If I disable the second instance or uninstall it, the annoying pop up goes away. I cannot adjust my sounds however and when I try to adjust it, Windows launches the assistant to try to help my find a solution. There is no solution and I have to uninstall the 2nd instance and then do a restart. Sound is restored after the restart but eventually the pop up occurs and my sound is muted.

The details for either instance are the same under properties:



Anyone have any ideas?

I will buy a Sound Card if that is an easy fix. I guess if I use a dedicated sound card, I will be using a different driver than RealTek so potentially the problem will go away. At least that is my thinking.

I did try a restore but that did not help.

Here is information about my PC:



Thanks, Bill

I think I might have solved it. I was not installing the new RealTek driver correctly. When I installed the updated driver, the driver replaced the second instance of High Definition Audio. I ran my pc for several hours yesterday and the annoying pop up did not occur.

Fingers crossed.....

- - - Updated - - -

Shoot! It came back but this time its more manageable. I can now adjust the sound volume where is before I could not. The problem is the icon still cannot be minimized or closed. So its still annoying. Its definitely related to the Realtek Driver under High Definition Audio. If I disable it, the icon goes away. The Problem is sound then becomes unusable.

- - - Updated - - -

Correction:

If I disable the RealTek driver in Device Manager and then re-enable it, the icon allows me to control the volumn but sound is muted.

Thanks MokiChU.

You are right the RealTek driver you directed me to is much more current then the one ASROCK gave me. Unfortunately, the icon keeps popping up and it disables the sound.

I contacted a Microsoft rep (useless) via the troubleshooter and his suggestion was to remove all the sound drivers and restart my PC. Worthless... He also said I should update my BIOS and if that did not work, I should buy a dedicated sound card like Sound Blaster. He said that a dedicated sound card would improve my sound experience and because it was its own motherboard for sound my problems would go away..... sure