Alsa died in gnome only, any clue?

[Xornot]

Hi folks, I used to have alsa working fine in both console and in gnome, but now it no longer works in gnome. I tried reinstalling alsa and tested it before turning on gnome and it still works fine from console. But once I start up gnome, I can get no sound. The only thing I have done is install various other media players to try them out. Would one of them conk out alsa some how? Any clue how I should hunt this down?

Is KDE better for audio?

Thanks
Iain