The VOLUME in Sytem icons is grayed out. Sound has been working fine- but somehow it got turn OFF in the system try. I tried this link, and selected RESTORE DEFAULTS when in the System Icon Area- nothing happens.
Sounds like something got pooched a bit for 7 there. Try running the system file checker with the dvd you burned in the drive to see if that will repair the Windows file for that. Is this for onboard sound or an addon?
If you have an addon like a Creative sound card you would rely on the volume control panel and audio console options seen there and wouldn't even use the Windows adjuster. Your other option is to go into the Control Panel>Recovery and run the system restore back before this was first seen. Something you added on lately may have knocked it out on you.
W7 Ultimate x64/W10 Pro x64/W11 Pro Triple Boot - Main PC W7 Remote PC Micro ATX W7 Pro x64/W11 Pro
CPU
AMD Phenom II X4 975 Deneb 3.6ghz - 965 2nd remote pc
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4-Gigabyte GA-880GM-D2H remote pc
Memory
Kingston Hyper X DDR3 1600 1.5v 16gb - Hyper X Fury 8gb 2nd
Graphics Card(s)
MSI HD Radeon 5750 1gb - MSI HD Radeon 6450 on mini tower
Sound Card
Creative Labs X-Fi Xtreme Audio P - Realtek onooard 2nd case
Monitor(s) Displays
ASUS VW199T-P 19" HP 2082a Main-HP 2082a 20" remote pc
Screen Resolution
Asus 1440x900 - HP 1600x900
Hard Drives
WD Black 1TB HD per OS W7, W10, and pending W11 presently on 500gb OS Drive - Pending Triple 1TB HDs for Spanned Storage/backup volume
Single 2TB external USB enclosure, single 1TB System 7 Host/Boot drive, Pending 8TB external HD for system image b
PSU
Corsair 750TX - primary / Corsair CX600 - second
Case
Antec 900-2 - SSD compatible / NZXT Vulcan mini tower
That will do it too! I run into not seeing the volume control in the system tray on a few occasions where going to Start>Programs>Creative and then the volume panel item there still won't see the icon appear until rebooting.
W7 Ultimate x64/W10 Pro x64/W11 Pro Triple Boot - Main PC W7 Remote PC Micro ATX W7 Pro x64/W11 Pro
CPU
AMD Phenom II X4 975 Deneb 3.6ghz - 965 2nd remote pc
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4-Gigabyte GA-880GM-D2H remote pc
Memory
Kingston Hyper X DDR3 1600 1.5v 16gb - Hyper X Fury 8gb 2nd
Graphics Card(s)
MSI HD Radeon 5750 1gb - MSI HD Radeon 6450 on mini tower
Sound Card
Creative Labs X-Fi Xtreme Audio P - Realtek onooard 2nd case
Monitor(s) Displays
ASUS VW199T-P 19" HP 2082a Main-HP 2082a 20" remote pc
Screen Resolution
Asus 1440x900 - HP 1600x900
Hard Drives
WD Black 1TB HD per OS W7, W10, and pending W11 presently on 500gb OS Drive - Pending Triple 1TB HDs for Spanned Storage/backup volume
Single 2TB external USB enclosure, single 1TB System 7 Host/Boot drive, Pending 8TB external HD for system image b
PSU
Corsair 750TX - primary / Corsair CX600 - second
Case
Antec 900-2 - SSD compatible / NZXT Vulcan mini tower