Do you have 1 administrator account, or do you have several user accounts ? YES, I am administrator and this is the only account on the machine.
Try to mute, then shut down your system (Start => Shut Down, but not restart). See if it helps next time you start the system, it should stay mute. I Don't see much difference in [Shut Down + Start Up] and [Restart], but for your info, I've done both, for months now and it doesnot make a change, it doesnot stay mute.
Also make sure you click the system sound tray icon when you mute it. Of course, I use the Windows 7 only system sound tray and not the one of the intel drivers.
I used to have a similar problem in Vista, where I had an administrator and a limited standard user accounts, so when someone changed the sound volume under the standard account then the system sound would change under my account as well. I ended up with:
System sound tray icon (or Control Panel, Sounds) => Sounds => Uncheck "Play music on startup"[/QUOTE] I could do this, but it's not the right solution. I don't want to press mute everytime I startup the laptop. It should be pressed once, and only after pressing it again, no matter if you shutdown/restart/logoff or whatever, the laptop should come out of the mute. Not by itself.
So thanks for the comment, but not the answer what I was hoping for....
Ciao