I am getting strange problem with sound card.
Using Suse 10.1
Card: HDA Intel
Chip: AD1986A
The sound card stops working if I adjust volume with KMix

Thanks to forum
http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/forum/printthread.php?t=286&page=2&pp=10

The solution was
Adding the option model=3stack (or model=3stack-dig) to the driver snd_hda_intel

This made my sound driver stable