Annoying Sound Icon Part II

Hello All,

So this annoying sound icon keeps popping up in the left portion of the screen. I cannot adjust it and when it appears, sound gets muted and video starts acting oddly. Nothing major but when I open MS Word and hover over the app on the task bar, the mini view flashes vs being solid. If I do a search in the lower left search, the new screen pops up in behind the active windows. The icon is apparently supreme in its power too as it is always on top of every window. It is strategically placed so I cannot maximize windows as the icon blocks menus and buttons. Like I said nothing major, just weird.

Here is the annoying icon.



I can adjust the icon upwards and the sound will momentarily be restored but the sound is quickly muted.

I have tried everything up to this point and I am about to chuck my mobo out the window to be frank. I have tried to update all the sound and video drivers to the latest versions. Sound will work periodically and it might work for a day or a few minutes but the annoying icon re-appears. It just appeared as I was typing this post. My screensaver tried to activate and the annoying icon appeared. On Monday, I did a reset which included removing all of my data. All of my data is on another hard drive so the total reset was not an issue. The PC has been running fine up until today and as I said, the annoying icon appeared. I had also held off on installing the ASRock Mobo drivers until today. When the annoying icon appeared, I installed them figuring, what the heck. Since I did a reset, we can eliminate Spyware.

There is one other thing I did today which is to disable the Windows 10 Fast Start feature. I have had issues with it in the past and when it was enabled, my PC would not shut down properly and it would restart in the middle of the night. I doubt its related to the annoying icon but I thought I would mention it.

Since the annoying icon appeared between 11:30 and 12:30 today, is there a way to check to see what wonders Windows 10 was doing during this time? Perhaps a "helpful" update was installed? I am looking for anything at this point. The install is fresh so other than disabling fast start, I have not made many changes to the OS.

I am running Windows 10 Version 2004 (OS Build 19041.804). When the icon appeared before the reset, I am fairly sure I was running the latest version of Windows.

This didn't happen with Windows 7. What is the down side to going back to Windows 7? I have the DVD. I doubt I can simply place it in the DVD drive and install it.... or can I? Have to admit, I don't see any real advantage to Windows 10 from 7.

Thanks, Bill

Thanks Denis. I agree with your assessment about the sound drivers or possibly the BIOS. I don't have the latest BIOS version and I did look at the BIOS releases after the one I am using and none of the mention anything about fixing sound issues.

Your keyboard idea is worth a shot. For kicks, I am going to try a different one to see what happens. Never know. As they say eliminate the obvious first.

Denis,

I think you might be on to something with your keyboard idea. I am using my work computer at the moment and I am using a Microsoft Keyboard. Nothing fancy but it has the ability to adjust sound from the keyboard vs settings in Windows 10. Guess what popped up when I tried to adjust the sound from the keyboard?



Its the exact same icon that is popping up on my home PC and muting the sound!

I am going to buy a new keyboard during lunch to see what happens.

Thanks, Bill

I bought the new keyboard and the icon has not reappeared since Friday.

As they say, always eliminate the simple and obvious and before going to the complicated. They keyboard is at least 10 years old and probably closer to 15. It must have been sending mute commands to my PC in rapid order. That would explain the wonky graphics I was getting. That would also explain why Window 10 could never find a problem with the sound or the drivers.

Well the new keyboard is as bare bones as they come. There are no keys for any sound and the only special key I have is the Windows key that brings up the application menu.

Thank you Denis!!!