Help. Lost on-screen Volume bar

[Kthe]

I lost on-screen volume bar when using - + built-in buttons to adjust volume level.
I have a 3 months old VGN-FE31H running Windows MCE.
Any idea how to restore this useful featrure??
Thanks

[Blencogo]

Hi Kthe and welcome.

Is it just the Volume that doesn't work, or is it all the Fn+ buttons like screen brightness etc?

If they have all failed you probably need to reinstall the Sony Utilities.

If you have a directory C:\Utils then try running Utils.exe to reinstall the utility functions.

If you don't have this folder then you need to downlod the Preinstalled Utilities for your model - extract the zip file into a temporary folder and run the Setup file for these Utilities IN THIS ORDER:

1. Sony Utilities
2. Sony Shared Library
3. Vaio Event Service

A reboot will be required and you may have to repeat the setup if it doesn't work first time.

[Kthe]

Hello Blencogo and thanks,

Actually, it's not a Fn+ key problem. Those works correctly.

My Vaio model has 5 separate built-in keys:
Mute, Vol-, Vol+ and 2 programmable buttons.

Mute, Vol- and Vol+ do the job they're supposed to, but they should also produce an on-screen display (as this was the case til a few days ago...) pretty like the on-screen effect you have when adjusting or muting volume level on most tv sets.

I suspect that this has something to do with Windows MCE (and a ehtray service which seems to work correctly on my Vaio) and perhaps it is not a Vaio specific feature.

Any other idea??

Many thanks anyway

[Blencogo]

Ht Kthe,

If it is only a few days ago, have you tried a System Restore to point before the problem?

[richypoo]

I have just had the same problem.....the function works (ie volume and brightness work using the "S" keys....but the display no longer shows the level changes. Very odd. I dont think there have been any updates to the system. I have FE41S

[Thalamus.]

Hi Richypoo,

Can you please check and confirm that ehtray.exe is running..?

You should be able to check this under the process tab in the Windows Task manager..

[steve171274]

I have had this problem start today ,but i did change my sound level in bios settings a few hours prior to the loss of the bar, but after i did a system clean up with ' tune up utilities 2007' and give it the full work out,windows start up changes and everything,i then noticed the volume bar had gone.Incidentley i changed my vol setting from 4 to a max8 and it made no difference at all to the speaker volume other than give bars 1 to 5 very little sound output and then the sound starts to suddenly start appearing at the end of the range. I actually put the lap top up full vol and then placed my nokia 6280 fone on the speakers and let the battle commence and i can say with no word of a lie that the mobile fone drowned out the the tinny vaio speakers easily.Its embarassing when u reveal to people u paid £1200 pounds for it.

[dejj]

I too have the problem of not seeing the volume bar when using the specific volume keys on the Vaio FE-31H model. pretty weird, my FN keys work fine and display themselves on the screen when using them

my problems are with mute, + and - key, please help

[andoni77ad]

I have ehtray.exe running and still no on-screen controls. Don't know when they went but they certainly worked fine for the first year or so that I had my Vaio. Any suggestions as to how I can get them back?

[ballysingh]

I had the same problem.

If you goto "run" and type "services.msc" without "" then restart the "Vaio Event Service" by right clicking on the service.

Mine started to work after that

hope it helps