One thing you can do, just to check the sound card is to 
send it a sound file. On my machine, I'd do it like...

# cat /usr/X11R6/../../sounds/alert.wav > /dev/audio

...where the /../../ were some more dirs in the path. 
And where /dev/audio might be your sound board, 
whichever dev yours is. You can hunt for sound files 
with...

# find / -name "*.wav"

...and do your "cat" on one of those. Anything more 
detailed than this, then I'm out of clues and leave you 
to the real gurus...

Regards,

Gan Starling
Kalamazoo MI USA

--

Windows, n. (archaic) -- That
32-bit patch to its 16-bit GUI
re-issue of its 8-bit OS for a 
4-bit CPU from a 2-bit company
fearing even one single bit
of competition.