headphones not working

[Guest]

my speakers work, but my headphones are not (yes, they are plugged in and
turned up.) there is no volume control icon on the toolbar. It was there
yesterday. Not today. I have a emachine

 

[Guest]

First lets fix the system tray problem.
Go into control pannel and double click sounds and audio devices.
check the box that says place volume icon in the taskbar

after that is done right click the speacker icon that is now in your system
tray and select open volume control. At the top click the options menu,
properties.
now check all the boxes under playback so that they will be displayed in the
vollume control window, than un-mute any that are mutted and see if that
helps.
some older programs will mute playback automaticly so be sure to watch for
that.

also this a standard headphone jack and not a usb headset corect?