Ok alsamixer was setting volume of every single sound device to 0 and I found a solution to this for myself and I hope it will help others:
Open terminal and do this:
su
root password
service alsa force-stop
alsaconf
Follow the wizard - mostly just press ENTER when something pops up.
alsamixer
Set the volume at the wanted level by using left right up and down arrows and m button to mute or unmute certain devices and press ESC to leave the mixer.
alsactl store
and then add
alsactl restore
at the end of the
/etc/rc.local file
using Your favorite text editor (as root).
reboot - Your settings should be restored.
I am running fully updated Zen Mini 2010.10 with Kernel 38.3 BFS.
Hope this helps to somebody someday.
Andy