[ale] ALSA on Gateway Laptop

[j9916moore at bellsouth.net (Jim Moore)]

Good Morning All,

Am trying to get sound (ALSA) working on my Gateway laptop.
Box is Gateway 4542 running Etch. Now first I've followed this tutorial:
http://www.debiantutorials.org/content/view/161/211/
Since it wasn't working still I searched until I found this thread and 
have done the mutes as suggested, but still no sound.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/sount-doesnt-work-on-my-gateway-4542gp-laptop.-353209/page2.html
I get sounds on mouse clicks but not sound from Totem, and CD Player and 
Rhythmbox load the track files from CDs but when I press Play nothing 
happens.
Apparently sound is really problematical on Gateways.
Sound card is integrated Intel 82801.

Ideas, thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Jim