Weired sound with Suse 9.0 and KDE control center

Hi,

... Actually, it is not the sound that is weired, but the way how I have 
to activate my sound.

When I log in with KDM I have the normal system sounds. However, if I 
want to start another sound application, like the ALSA player or XMMS, I 
don't get any sound output. Starting the ALSA player turns my mouse 
pointer in the hour glass for several seconds, like when the application 
is started, and then nothing happens. Starting XMMS works fine, but when 
I want to play a song, I get the error message, that the sound driver is 
not accessible.

The weired thing now is, that if I start the KDE control center, go to 
the sound configuration and press the 'apply' button, without actually 
changing anything, suddenly the ALSA player pops up and starts playing, 
and the XMMS plays now as well.

Can anybody give me a hint what is going on with my computer?

It looks to me something is hogging the sound driver, but why does it 
get released after 'applying' the control center configuration?

BTW, I have a Micro-Star motherboard with on board 82801DB AC'97 Audio 
Controller.

Thanks for the help.

Guenter