My volume slider is too heavy!!!

I have a windows 98 machine that I let a friend borrow. When I got it back the sound did not work. Well, knowing that he is not very 'computer savy' I just figured he messed around with some settings. After going through some things everythings seemed ok. (meanwhile I have a audio cd in and playing but could not here it) Then I clicked on the little volume control in the sys tray and it was all the way down, so I clicked and dragged it up and I could here the cd playing, BUT when I let go of the volume slider it fell back down to the bottom. This happens every time, I drag it up I can hear sound but if I let it go it goes back down all by itself. I checked the add/remove programs for anything I didn't recognize, and checked the task manager for anything suspicious running but nothing out of the ordinary. So has someone played a joke on me or do I have a problem.

Any comments? I'd appreciate it!

JO

get startup control panel, you may have a virus, there are a million and one ways to hide a program from task manager. they may be running it as a system service

drag the mouse upto the top of the slider, not past it, it used to happen to me.