Sound Mixer always mute on boot?

[Mnemia]

I'm having an annoying problem with the AC'97 builtin sound on my laptop. I'm using kernel sound, not ALSA, and it works fine. The problem I have is this: sound always seems to be mute after a reboot even though the mixer says that it isn't muted. Meaning, the volume control is turned up for master and PCM, and the hardware volume control is up and unmuted, but no sound comes out even though it's supposedly playing sounds through it according the the mixer. All I have to do to make the sound work is "tweak" the volume - as soon as I slightly move the volume slider on either the master or PCM control the sound suddenly starts playing at the volume it was set at. It's not so much a functional problem, because I can work around it this way, as it is an annoyance to have to open up and tweak the mixer every time I reboot.

I am a member of all the correct groups and all, and this problem happens whether or not I channel the sound through artsd.The volume slider in applications (eg xmms) does not work to activate the sound; only mixer applications do. Kernel logs show no anomalies. It's almost as if the hardware is asleep and needs a kick in the pants to wake it up.

Anyone else have this same problem with AC'97? My laptop is a Thinkpad A-series, if that matters. I might try ALSA if I can't fix this, but I'd rather not. ALSA setup just seemed more trouble than it's worth when all I'll be using sound for on the laptop is to listen to MP3s and DVD movies through headphones. Kernel sound quality is good and it's simple to setup.

Any ideas?

[sihker]

Hm, I have kinda same problem. Although hardware is different. Desktop, hercules fortissimo 2,alsa drivers. Every time I start the system, sound device is not present(doesn't matter root or ordinary user). Problem is fixed simply by playing some mp3 with mpg123. Then all is working normally. Go figure. Everything is unmuted, after that used alsamixer also.
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Greetings,
Sihker