im running SuSE 8.2, Yast2 automatically recognises the sound card and i beleive it uses the es1371 module but am not sure how to check.
xmms works but occasionly gets stuck and gives a audio device not found error. deleting and reconfiguring the card in Yast2 seems to fix this. any test sounds or clicks and whistles get distorted and played over and over, sound wont work in xine or mplayer at all (although this may be a different problem)

configuring the card through Yast2 occasionly (but not always) gives me the error
"The Kernel module snd-ens1371 for sound support could not be loaded. This can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO and IRQ parameters."

linux:/etc # insmod es1371
Using /lib/modules/2.4.20-4GB-athlon/kernel/drivers/sound/es1371.o
/lib/modules/2.4.20-4GB-athlon/kernel/drivers/sound/es1371.o: unresolved symbol ac97_probe_codec

lspci -vv has this to say about it

00:0a.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq 5880 AudioPCI (rev 02)
Subsystem: Ensoniq Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI128
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=slow >TAbort- <TAbort+ <MAbort+ >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 32 (3000ns min, 32000ns max)
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
Region 0: I/O ports at d000 [size=64]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1
Flags: PMEClk- DSI+ D1- D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

thanks in advance for any help

Hi,
I believe that you can determine if the correct driver is es1371 with the command <lspci -n> . If you see a line that says 1274:1371, I think that means it is the right driver for your card. If you do not see this line, please post the output of the command.
If you always get the "unresolved symbol ac97_probe_codec" when you do <insmod es1371> it kind of looks as if something is wrong with that driver.
Since you problem appears to be intermittent, I really do not know what to suggest. You do have PnP disabled in BIOS?

try modprobe es1371

I have an es1371 sound card and lspci -n reports 1274:5880 and works fine
also this module depends on the ac97_codec module, so modprobe is the way

ive actually bought an sb live now i still seem to get the same problem however....