On top of what Rich said above, judging from the statement about the error when trying to make the speaker icon appear in the task bar you could have a corrupted driver on the software end as a possibility as well. Have you tried removing and re-installing the sound card driver via the device manager? There is a possibility this may help, about a 50/50 shot.

When I die, I want to go peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming and panicking like the passengers in his car.