Problems with cs4236b sound card on 8.2

I have a Dell workstation with a cs4236b sound card on the motherboard. At
first, I was able to configure the sound card fine using YaST, but unable to
get the card to play afterward. After much trial and error, I found I was
able to get the card working after using various sound configuration
programs, such as kmix and amixer.  So I have sound until I log off, at
which point it all starts over again -- I have no sound until I go to modify
the settings again. It's almost like something is being loaded by the
programs that isn't loaded at startup. BTW, I tried alsaconf as well and all
went well and the card played upon configuration -- in contrast to the
behavior using YaST -- but still whenever I log in, no sound until I
configure the card again.

Might anybody have some insight on this problem?

Thanks,

Rob