RPi zone died

It does. I can see in the logs that you are setting the volume.

OK but then the slider moves back to 0. Can you see that too?

Hmmm… I can see that it first identifies with the proper volume range, but then initializes with very strange values.

And this has been working before? Could it be that the HAT is damaged or something? Is it properly connected?

It’s been sitting on top of the refrigerator for three years quite happily.

I will take it apart apart and put it back together and see if that helps.

Damaged HAT is my bet too.

It might well do. I recently had degraded network performance through a 1Gb switch. It only allowed 100Mb connections. Turns out some of the CAT5 connectors had started to come out of their sockets and needed pushing fully home. All fixed after that. The switch just gathers dust under a cupboard in the living room and the connectors were certainly clicked fully home when it was last connected up many years ago.

Took it apart, cleaned it a bit, put it back together. No change.

So what does the hive mind say? Replace the HAT?