I'm sure it would, but that should only be done as a last resort.

I'd like some more details on how games don't work. Do you mean they crash, or give error messages, or what? If there are error messages, do you think you could copy and post some of them here?

It looks like (from stuff being greyed out) that your sound driver might just not be starting up for some reason. At a time when the volume control is missing, go to Control Panel->System, and go to the Device Manager tab. Check the list for any sound related devices. Do they have icons like an exclamation mark, a question mark, or an "X" beside them? (If they do, they might already be expanded out of the tree). Double-click on them and see what it says in there. There should be a message either saying "This device is working properly" or some error message.

Oh also, just to try something, the volume control icon program is called "systray". When it is on, try Ctrl+Alt+Deleting systray, and see if the problems occur. Also try running it and see if it fixes anything.