Somebody suggested I add a password to my login, that maybe if it slowed
down a little, it could find the volume icon. Funny thing, it worked the
very first time I tried it but not thereafter. The only thing that will
consistently work is to let it boot up (now I have to enter a password) and
after I get in (which, incidentally takes a VERY!!!!! long time--unlike any
other XP machine I use, but I've written than off to the fact that the
machine with the volume icon problem only has a 1.3 processor and 256M of
RAM) then I log off and log in. Then the notification area shows up the way
its supposed to. Maybe I should start all over and do a clean installation
of XP like I knew I should have in the first place. Thanks, Jeannine