LinuxQuestions.org - Sound Problem With Mandrake 9.1

Hey guys,
i've gone through and found nothing that seemed to work in the forums for the problem that i have...when i start up kde i get the error message

informational - artsmessage
sound Server informational message:
Error while initializiing the sound driver:
device/dev/dsp can't be opened (no such device)
The sound Server will continue, using the null output device.

well, i know i've got a sound card, it worked before i tried installing ALSA stuff and some other things like ecacound-2.3.0, ecatools, libecasound, pyecasound...that's probably all one package...but i'm just shootin in the dark here...so..anyways, when i run the "lspci -v" command in Konsole...this long list of fun is what i get:

Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Memory at ec000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
Capabilities: [e4] #09 [c104]
Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 2.0

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 05
) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, fast devsel, latency 96
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64
Memory behind bridge: e0000000-e7ffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: f0000000-f7ffffff

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #1) (rev 02) (prog-if 0
0 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 1800 [size=32]

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #2) (rev 02) (prog-if 0
0 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
I/O ports at 1820 [size=32]

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BAM/CAM PCI Bridge (rev 42) (prog-if 00 [No
rmal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=168
I/O behind bridge: 00003000-00003fff
Memory behind bridge: e8000000-e80fffff

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801CAM ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801CAM IDE U100 (rev 02) (prog-if 8a [Maste
r SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
I/O ports at <unassigned>
I/O ports at <unassigned>
I/O ports at <unassigned>
I/O ports at <unassigned>
I/O ports at 1840 [size=16]
Memory at 10000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM SMBus (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 1860 [size=32]

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Audio (rev 02
)
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 1c00 [size=256]
I/O ports at 1880 [size=64]

00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Modem (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Generic
])
Subsystem: Conexant: Unknown device 5422
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 2400 [size=256]
I/O ports at 2000 [size=128]

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV11 [GeForce2 Go] (rev b2
) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=64K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [44] AGP version 2.0

02:01.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] (rev 78)
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 80, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 3000 [size=128]
Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

02:04.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6912 Cardbus Controller
Subsystem: Dell Computer Corporation: Unknown device 00f3
Flags: bus master, stepping, slow devsel, latency 168, IRQ 10
Memory at 10001000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Bus: primary=02, secondary=03, subordinate=06, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: 10400000-107ff000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: 10800000-10bff000
I/O window 0: 00004000-000040ff
I/O window 1: 00004400-000044ff
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

HELP!!! please! i wanna get back to hearing my music...which, being a college student , i live off of music......thanks guys! and your advice for the mplayer worked...
-Robert