Sound sometimes doesn't make a noise

[g4c9z]

Hi,

I noticed that sometimes when sound is supposed to come out of my speakers it doesn't. This has happened in 2 cases: when I try to make my computer beep (echo -e "\a") and when I try to play certain WAV files (sometimes they play sometimes they don't). It also seems like there's more of a delay than there should be before sounds start.

What are the chances this is due to faulty hardware and what are the chances it's a software bug, such as in the driver or in ALSA?

I have onboard audio (an A7N8X-X motherboard) which seems to be an NVidia NForce chip, though in my motherboard's instruction booklet it says "Realtek ALC650 6CH with built-in HP amplifier".

I don't have the nforce-audio driver installed; instead I have selected the kernel option Device Drivers -> Sound -> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture -> PCI Devices -> Intel i8x0/MX440, SiS 7012; Ali 5455; NForce Audio; AMD768/8111. Could that be related?

My kernel is 2.6.8, gentoo-dev-sources.