Missing Task Bar Icons for Running Tasks

[Jim]

Lately the "safely remove hardware" icon has not appeared when Windows
is restarted, and the "sound control" button sometimes does and
sometimes doesn't. Just now when I restarted, neither of those showed
up, and the Norton Anti Virus icon did not appear until several
minutes after I confirmed via the task manager and the Norton
Systemworks program that they were already running.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am running Windows XP Home
SP2.
Jim

 

[Jim]

Lately the "safely remove hardware" icon has not appeared when Windows
is restarted, and the "sound control" button sometimes does and
sometimes doesn't. Just now when I restarted, neither of those showed
up, and the Norton Anti Virus icon did not appear until several
minutes after I confirmed via the task manager and the Norton
Systemworks program that they were already running.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am running Windows XP Home
SP2.
Jim

And... after I left my computer, which had been on for at least 24
hours, and came back an hour later, the "sound" and "safely remove
hardware" icons miraculously reappeared in my absence. No new
hardware has been attached.