I am running ubuntu 6.06 LTS on my Dell Inspiron E1505. Sound worked fine for a few days and now suddenly the volume control in gnome gives me this error. "No volume control GStreamer plugins and/or devices found.

My sound card is listed in device manager as:
8281G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller

When I expand that device I see the following:

STAC92xx Analong ALSA Capture Device
Intel ALSA Control Device
STAC92xx Analog ALSA Playback Device
STAC92xx Digital ALSA Playback Device
STAC92xx Analog OSS Control Device
STAC92xx Analog OSS PCM Device
STAC92xx Analog OSS PCM Device
STAC92xx Analog OSS PCM Device

I did notice I get the startup noise right as the login screen pops up but as soon as I log in gnome doesn't see my soundcard. I've tried using different programs but they all tell me I have no sound card.

Any help would be appreciated.

edit: enabled root logins to gnome and sound does work while logged in as root...

your edit of root gives me an idea...until someone better comes along.

while logged into ....is the permission to /etc/asound.state set to rw-r--r-- so the normal user can read the file?