You could try running alsaconf from commandline (you need to be root to do this), it might offer alternative drivers to use.

Or my favored option is to update the system (I'm sure that alsa has had a recent update), you'll be able to see what is going to be upgraded before continuing.

If you're not sure how to do this:

Start the package manager, wait for it to finish parsing the list, then click th Reload button (this will download a fresh list of available updates/packages) after this click the Mark All Upgrades button, then click the Apply button (at this point you will have the opportunity to review what will be updated/removed) if you're satisfied click the relevant button to start the process.

If you haven't done an upgrade before it is likely to take some time to download and apply the changes, now would be a good time to:

a) Have something to drink or eat
b) Take the dog out for a walk
c) Do the gardening

The X-Fi is a known problem. Sometime last year, a guy at Linux Format designed what he called the "Ultimate Linux Box" which included X-Fi, and ended up having to use the onboard sound because he couldn't get the X-Fi to work. Not sure which distro it was, but it shows what we're up against. Even the expert couldn't make it work.

Even though I am a PCLinuxOS user (and a tester for the dev team) I would recommend that you use the distro that does the best job with your hardware.

I don't know if you looked at any of the links I sent earlier in the thread where the question has already been raised at PCLOS.

Based on that reply, I suggest two things (both need doing as root):

1. Edit the file /etc/modprobe.preload and add the line: snd-ca0106
2. Open a terminal and type the line: modprobe snd-ca0106
3. Then the line: alsaconf

The first of these lines will ensure that the module is always loaded on startup, the second will load it now. The third will, hopefully, sort everything out.

The other thing you might try is to use Synaptic to install the latest kernel, and try 1-3 again.