This is not a big problem, but is mildly irritating.

I have Slackware 11 (kernel 2.4.33) installed on an Asus P5VD1-X mb, 3GHz Pentium, and it works fine using the built-in sound card.

Sound works OK, but the initial KDE startup sound is played at full, highly distorting volume. From that point onwards the system notification sounds and other sounds are played at normal volume.

I have another pc with a much older mb and PIII 500MHz with the same setup, and this does not have the same problem.

I have tried unchecking 'restore volume on startup' in kmix - makes no difference.

Appreciate any thoughts.

Have you tried setting the volumes with alsamixer, and then storing that as the default with "alsactl store"? That should restore the volume to the proper level during boot, before X even starts.

Thank for the suggestion - had already done that but did it again anyway. 'tis still the same.

Maybe look at Control Center--> System Notifications-->Player Settings if you haven't already.