On Screen Volume Bar ?

[Szpixman]

As of yesterday, when I play an mp3 (using Windows Media Player 11) , the volume button on my keyboard dosen't work & the on screen volume bar does not appear.  The mute & pause function are OK, just no volume.  It is a Microsoft Natural Ergonamic 4000 usb keyboard.  Everything was fine on Friday.  Could this be a Driver issue or some glitch with WMP ? Sorry if this isn't posted in the proper place.
Am running XP SP2 on a desktop.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Can you try using System Restore and restoring the computer to a few days before the problem?

[Szpixman]

Thanks, but I have just tried a couple of restore points to when I was certain it was working & unfortunately
it didn't help...is there anything else I should try ??

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Ok, we need more information.

What exactly did you do between Friday and the problem? (downloads, installs, hardware changes, ect...)

[Szpixman]

Before Friday I installed XP Smoker Pro software, but everything worked perfect even after the install.
Friday morning everything still was OK.  I went fishing for the weekend & noticed the problem on Sunday
afternoon when I got home.  My wife was using the computer over the weekend, but did not play or use
the volume at all.  She mainly checks her email & Ebay stuff & generally does not mess with anything else.
I tried a restore to a point before I installed the Smoker Pro software & it did not make any difference.
Thanks for your quick reply.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

I don't know much about XP Smoker Pro but I would try to disable as much as you can (or uninstall it) and then restart to see what happens. We can't discount anything here.

the volume button on my keyboard doesn't work & the on screen volume bar does not appear.

So pressing the button on the keyboard does nothing? What about if you change it manually with your mouse?

Also, I moved this to the right section, Microsoft Windows. 

[drmsucks]

1) Try to clean the keyboard - hold it upside down and shake and tap it; vacuum it. Look especially around the volume keys for detritus (gunk!)

2) Uninstall the keyboard and re-install.

[Szpixman]

The problem is solved!  Somehow since Friday, The Human Interface Device Service Access was disabled.
This was likely one of the XP tweaks in the Smoker Pro Software.  After contacting them directly I recieved
the solution within minutes.  Thanks for all your help as well, the keyboard needed a good cleaning anyway. 

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Told you it was the Smoker Pro thing. 

Glad you got it sorted. 

[Szpixman]

Thanks a lot Carbon Dudeoxide.  Other than that little glitch the software does have lots of tweaks that have
greatly improved my startup & shutdown speeds as well as a noticeable improvement in performance.  Seems that was the only screw up so far.

http://www.xp-smoker.com


Thanks again.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Some tips on speeding up computer performance:
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,62253.0.html

If you have nothing to do, it makes an interesting read.