What model of toshiba do you have?
Can help if you post the output of dmesg and lsmod.
I think this link have been posted before, anyway, this is:
http://www.linux-laptop.net/
" These mini-HOWTO style documents describe setup and configuration of Linux on specific brands of notebooks "
I always have used mplayer. It can play almost all formats and the last version can even play some realvideo and quicktime files
(These are in the first stage of development).
If the laptop can play cds while being off then alsa (and linux) isn't related to it.