Sys Tray Speaker icon

[Guest]

Win XP Home. Only comments, no need for anyone to reply unless they want.

1. I've ten icons for things in my Sys Tray. If I do a registry clean with
just about any cleaner the speaker icon seems to be the one that can be
pretty well guaranteed to not appear on rebooting, but then it will almost
always reappear during a second reboot - though one time it took a third
reboot.

2. When I click on my account (adminstrator) stuff starts loading up, and
from trial and error I get the impression that if I move the mouse even the
slightest whilst that is going on then quite often the speaker icon won't
appear in the sys-tray, but the other nine icons all do. So it's like during
booting Windows sees a mouse movement as an instruction to skip loading the
speaker icon. At first I thought that
must be ridiculous, but on thinking about it I'm wondering if it could be
during booting Windows has to look at where the mouse set the icon's volume
slider, so it can load it ready set at whatever audio level it was last left
at, and if by chance the mouse is moving whilst it is checking that the whole
thing defaults to skipping the speaker icon setup.

Don't know if it's relevant but I've an icon in my Systray that's called
"SiS Utility Tray v 2.09 L" which seems to be for changing the monitor
display and also the master control for exiting the Sys Tray (No I won't try
any experiments with it in case I end up with no monitor).

Anyway, as I said, only comments in case an expert wants to look into them,
no need for anyone to reply.

-- Albert.

 

[Galen]

In

Win XP Home. Only comments, no need for anyone to reply unless they
want.

I always love a good commentary... The first thing I'd say would be why all
the icons in your sys tray? Those are programs starting on boot? Perhaps one
of them is causing this unusual behavior with your volume icon? Your SiS is
indeed a monitor control, no worries with that. It doesn't need to be there.
In fact you can go ahead and change your monitor settings to anything you'd
like to try. If it doesn't work then simply do not touch anything when your
screen goes all haywire and it will revert to your earlier settings in 15
seconds. Err... Normally it will.

If you want to stop some of the programs from starting on boot (including
the monitor device controller which you should be able to do without
problem) you can just download a handy tool here:

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

After you've done so and started to change what happens on startup if you
run into a problem just press the F8 key over and over during reboot and
select "last known good configuration" from the menu that will appear.

Galen
--

"My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me
the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am
in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial
stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for
mental exaltation." -- Sherlock Holmes

 

[Guest]

Hi Galen,

Oh I'm not worried about all my systray icons, full list out of idle
interest is:

SiS Utility Tray (Can be handy for changing screen when doing my digi-cam
pics).
SoundMax (All sorts of audio stuff, hardly ever use it but handy if I do get
a sound problem sometime).
Winzip Quick Pick (Again, just handy to have it there).
FreeRamXPro (Like to keep an eye on RAM).
Blinkx (New toy, but it is quite likely I'll get rid of that one when I get
bored with it).
THE SPEAKER ICON (As discussed).
Norton AV (So I can see NAV its running - I'm a bit paranoid).
Zone Alarm (So I can see ZA its running - I'm quite paranoid).
Spybot S&D (So I can see it's running - I'm very paranoid).
Local Area Connector (Curious thing is ZA's icon often doesn't show anything
going in and out to the net when the LAN icon is showing stuff going through
- I'm so paranoid I'm quite certain I'm not paranoid enough - Had a viruse a
couple of years ago, don't want another).
-
Additional point on the indicator icons is that I found from way back even
in the old DOS days and all through ever since, the crash rate for a PC is
dramaticaly reduced if when it's doing something big in the background one
just sits back a minute or two and lets it finsh before carrying on with any
thing big one is doing oneself. Simple fact is lots of software just keeps
trying to use the same bit of RAM at the same time as some other bit of
software, delay one a little while and no crash arises. So, if I see a
probable new Windows update going on I leave off tweaking up a photo in the
graphics package a few minutes untill the system appears to be doing the sort
of stuff that's more likey to have been "tried and tested in every
circumstance in the marketplace" and fully debugged.

Read somewhere new release sharware has about 300 errors per thousand lines,
new commercial software has about 30 errors per thousand lines, and even the
bees knees aircraft and NASA type stuff has about 3 errors per thousand lines
when new - and almost all of which are said to be errors of omission - mainly
that in places the programmer has simply missed writting in the odd routine
to check if something is or is not what the program will expect. Reckon
that's what causes 99% of the crashes.

Albert

"Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted" - Bertrand Russell

 

[Galen]

In Albert <[email protected]> had this to say:

In-line responses:

SiS Utility Tray (Can be handy for changing screen when doing my
digi-cam pics).

You can dump that if you want. Only loading it into memory will mean less
conflicts later on in life. See below about the errors in programs.

SoundMax (All sorts of audio stuff, hardly ever use it but handy if I
do get a sound problem sometime).

That can go as well seeing as you don't usually use it. Again, no need.

Winzip Quick Pick (Again, just handy to have it there).

I personally disable it during WinZip's installation but if it makes you
happy to keep it there then it has a small footprint. Seeing as you're
keeping an eye on RAM I'm inclined to think you'd like as much of it free as
possible while still maintaining as much functionality as you can.
Personally I use WinZip's classic interface, disable the Quick Pick, and use
the right click context menus when needed.

FreeRamXPro (Like to keep an eye on RAM).

Handy application. I'd leave that running.

Blinkx (New toy, but it is quite likely I'll get rid of that one when
I get bored with it).

That looks a little heavy but if it's a toy you like and you're willing to
allocate the resources then it's something you should keep.

THE SPEAKER ICON (As discussed).

That one is just freaky. I've never seen this personally but it's not
entirely uncommon. Take a trip to Kelly (she's an MVP and a good one at
that) right here:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_v.htm

Scroll down to the Volume Icon part of the page and take a look at her
advice on the subject.

Norton AV (So I can see NAV its running - I'm a bit paranoid).
Zone Alarm (So I can see ZA its running - I'm quite paranoid).
Spybot S&D (So I can see it's running - I'm very paranoid).
Local Area Connector (Curious thing is ZA's icon often doesn't show
anything going in and out to the net when the LAN icon is showing
stuff going through - I'm so paranoid I'm quite certain I'm not
paranoid enough - Had a viruse a couple of years ago, don't want
another).

All of that is pretty decent stuff though I personally opt for what I
believe to be better protection. It's good that you at least are running
protection. Paranoia is a good thing because on the 'net there really are
people out to get you.

So, if I see a probable new Windows update
going on I leave off tweaking up a photo in the graphics package a
few minutes untill the system appears to be doing the sort of stuff
that's more likey to have been "tried and tested in every
circumstance in the marketplace" and fully debugged.

Free up some of the RAM might also help reduce the number of crashes. People
are so amazed and angry when their computer stops working, with all the
millions of lines of code it's amazing that it works as often as it does.

Read somewhere new release sharware has about 300 errors per thousand
lines, new commercial software has about 30 errors per thousand
lines, and even the bees knees aircraft and NASA type stuff has about
3 errors per thousand lines when new - and almost all of which are
said to be errors of omission - mainly that in places the programmer
has simply missed writting in the odd routine to check if something
is or is not what the program will expect. Reckon that's what causes
99% of the crashes.

99%? I'd have to wager that at least 50% are caused by PBKAC In your
case, however, you seem knowledgable and educated so perhaps 99% of your
crashes are caused through programming errors. I find that there are far
fewer technically savy people compared to the number of new-users and
average users.

Galen

--

"My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me
the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am
in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial
stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for
mental exaltation." -- Sherlock Holmes

 

[Guest]

Hi Galen,

Well, I know I said I wouldn't, but, ok, I've taken out SiS Utility Tray and
the SoundMax and I'll see over the next few weeks if the volume control icon
seems more solid after registry cleanups. Doubt the SiS tray one would do
anything but certainly the SounMax one being all about audio could be
interfering with the volume control loading - though I was getting much the
same on my old PC that had Win 95 on it and a completely different set of
sound and video stuff in it and it does seem to be something that lots of
people have had, I remeber people constantly having trouble with it even back
in Win 3.X days, so I'll be surprised if it does actually make much
difference, but one never knows until one tries does one.

Had a look at Kelly's by the way, but didn't see anything definite about
what I've found to be happening - bear in mind that it's only my IMPRESSION
that moving the mouse during booting seems to SOMETIMES cause the volume
control icon to not load, I've not been able to prove it, maybe because it's
a split second thing during the boot - which takes about 40 seconds on my
machine because I've got Norton and Spybot set to scan everything in sight as
it loads, which slows things, and there's also a bit of delay in all that
anyway as my PC sorts itself out with linking to ntl's allways on broadband
service.

As to RAM, not worried, I've 512MB and it's not that often FreeRAM actualy
has to do anything - Don't know if you've noticed but the latest FreeRAM
works differently to the old one. Instead of auto dumping little bits to disc
every ten seconds or so like it used to it now only does larger dumps now and
then when the free RAM actually starts runing out, I used to get niggled by
the fried egg noises from old one constantly working the hard drive, now I
get niggled because the my machine hardly ever makes a noise!

Someone said if modern programs were architecture they'd be bigger and more
complicated than cathedrals - reckon it's true - all the bricklayers in the
USA lay about 23,000,000 bricks a day, so if a brick was a data bit (bit not
byyte) Win XP with its updates would be all the brickwork laid in the whole
of America in two years. What's that mean? Assuming 75 years for brickwork
life (cement is specified to last only about that long) it works out to 33
copies of XP, meaning that all the brickwork standing in America today is
about equal to what's on 10 home computers - that's if you also chucked into
each machine say a 2 to 1 mix of office, music, pics and games stuff.

I'll try to let you know on this thread say about end March what happens
about the volume icon, will probably do three or four system cleanups in that
time, I usually do at least a basic clean about once a week.

All the best, Albert

 

[Galen]

In

Hi Galen,

<snip>

No worries, above and beyond that my reply to address is a real address
(only accessed by the web interface to avoid contamination by malware and
easily save bandwidth during worm strikes) which you can use. I'm as curious
as you are with how it comes out. If you get any stop errors or IRQ errors
post those via newgroups (so all can benefit should we find anything) or
email for simplicity sake. Beyond this I can try to recreate your errors. I
have a number of computers with many variables in their configuration that I
use for testing. Honestly? I've never seen it... I'm really avoiding the
"Kick It" post that I used to use for this particular bug, I'm hoping that I
too learn something.

I'm not an MVP at the moment, have been in the past but was unable to keep
up for a while due to personal reasons, so you could also wait for one of
them to add to this, they truly are experts in their fields. But for now I'd
say try it and see if it works. Giving it all the way to the end of March is
a long time, I'd give it a week or two at most. You must be aware of the
saying, "If it aint broke, tweak it." Your error seems so unique that I
really want to say kick it. I'm avoiding that for the time being... So, try
it and see... If it does work let us know, if not let us know and we'll try
something new.

While I was in college I worked doing foundations for houses. Lugging forms
around and mucking about in the mud. It was, shall I say, interesting at
least. To build something that will hopefully stand the test of time and
endure the weather (I live in Maine, USA) is a great feat. Your comparison
between masonry and programming is unique from what I've seen and quite
interesting. With your permission I'd like to save that and eventually post
it online along with acredation.

Galen
--

"My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me
the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am
in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial
stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for
mental exaltation." -- Sherlock Holmes