Windows 10: Windows 10 - volume stuck at zero and always starts with diagnostic boot

HiMy old hard disk where I had Windows 10 installed was deteriorating. So I replaced it with a new SSD on my Dell Inspiron 13-5378 and installed windows 10 again.1.However, as soon as I finished the installation, I noticed the volume indicator near the top left of the screen - it was stuck at zero. I'm able to temporarily increase the volume level by pressing the volume/F2 key and the sound is working fine. But this works only as long as I keep the key pressed. The moment I release it, the volume quickly goes back down to zero.2. After shutting down the laptop, whenever I power it on

:)

 

Volume goes to zero and mute.

Hi William,

If the volume of your computer automatically mutes, it could be that the audio drivers are corrupted or damaged, or that there are software conflicts occurring within the system. As a first troubleshooting step, we suggest that you run the audio troubleshooter
and lets Windows find and automatically resolve problems with your audio. Here's how to run the audio troubleshooter:

• Select the Start button, then type troubleshoot, and select
  Troubleshoot from the list of results. From there, select
  Playing Audio > Run the troubleshooter.

If the troubleshooter does not help resolve the problem with your volume settings, we suggest that you check Device Manager and update your sound card drivers. Updating would replace any corrupted or damaged components of the audio driver. Here's how to
update your audio drivers through Device Manager:

• Open the Start button, then type device manager, and select
  Device Manager from the search results.
• Under Sound, video and game controllers, right-click your sound card driver, then select
  Update Driver.
• Select Search automatically search for updated driver software.

If Windows doesn't find a new driver, you may look for one on the device manufacturer's website and follow their instructions on how to install their driver.

If the above steps doesn't resolve the problem, feel free to post back to us.

 

How to fix error unmountable boot volume

Hi James,

It is possible that you received the error UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME due to a damaged file system which failed to mount. This error also means that sub-system on machine failed to mount the boot volume. To efficiently assist you, we'd like
to gather more information:

• Have you made any recent changes prior to this issue?
• What is the exact error message you received?
• What troubleshooting steps have you done so far?

Meanwhile, we suggest that you you follow the steps shared by Michelle Her and
Billion Debbarma on this threads below to troubleshoot your concern:

• Windows 10 Unmountable Boot Volume Error Message And Automatic Repair
• Unmountable_boot_volume -Windows 10
  

Keep us posted if you need additional help.

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

Privacy tweaks...

• Turn Cortana Off. Bring up the Start menu and start typing. Click on the notebook icon in the left sidebar and choose Settings. From there, you can turn off Cortana.
• Search online and include web results. When you turn off Cortana, you’ll see this option appear. You can turn it off if you’d rather not get web search suggestions from the Start menu, which log your typing and send it back to Microsoft so you can get live-updating predictions, just like you do on Google.com or in Chrome and Firefox.
• Getting to Know You. In Settings > Privacy > Speech, Inking, & Typing, you’ll find a feature called “Getting to Know You”. This is probably the most sweeping privacy setting on the system, and even after turning off Cortana, you’ll have to disable this setting. Just click the “Stop Getting to Know Me” button to turn it off.
• Cloud Info. Turning off Getting to Know You removes info from your device, but you’ll have to remove it from the cloud separately. In that same window, click “Go to Bing and manage personal info for all your devices” to clear the Getting to Know You Data from your Microsoft account.

• If you head to Settings > Privacy > Feedback & Diagnostics, you’ll see two settings:

• Feedback frequency: Windows will occasionally ask you for feedback so you can send Microsoft your thoughts on Windows 10. If you’d rather it not bug you with such things, you can change it to Never.
• Diagnostic and usage data: This feature can send a lot of data back to Microsoft, including how often you use certain apps, which apps you use most often, and memory snapshots (which can inadvertently include parts of a document you’re working on if something crashes). You can change this to Full, Enhanced, or Basic. You can read more about what each of these to here.

Microsoft doesn’t let you turn off diagnostics completely, except on Enterprise versions of Windows. The Basic setting, they say, is data that is “vital to the operation of Windows”, including Windows Update and malicious software protection.


some may be duplicated. I found this info on Lifehacker, if anyone wants the full article.