SuSE 7.1/Sound in KDE

Hi, I just installed SuSE 7.1 onto my laptop, upgraded X and KDE 2.2 using the rpm packages, and upgraded to Kernel version 2.4.18. I have also installed Alsa version 0.9.12beta on my system. Sound works, but it has problems. It plays perfectly using xmcd and xmms. But anything else (which i think is linked against libasound, although I'm not too sure..) Plays around half a second then repeats that same half second until it times out or I restart alsa. This includes the games included with KDE and the KDE startiup/shutdown sounds as well. My laptop is a HP pavilion zt1000 series (I think thats an omnibook in the US), and the soundcard is a VIA AC97-686a chipset. Any suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated :) Emma