Since I have loads of time on my hands this evening :-P I'll try it without the updates....
Tried without YOU updates (on a clean install) and it's still the same... test the sound with any app, in YaST or in KControl and all the same... I get two quick notes/sounds and then deafening silence. Killed artsd and disabled it, then restarted the sound system... no change... two blips of sound and then nothing.
I also had no sound initially, but you have to configure the sound card(s) in Yast first. Yast>Hardware>Sound>Volume
Initially the volume is turned down to 0 in the configuration *but it does not show in the mixers*.
Don't think that's it. I've thought of that and messed with the volumes during install, after install, before doing a YOU, after doing a YOU... it's all the same.... two blips of sound and then nothing. A little experimenting... killed artsd, and disabled it. Fired up RealPlayer (cuz I haven't installed other players yet) and used it to play an OGG. I get several (10+) "pulses" of music before it cuts out. I know it did work initially. I installed WinXP on hda, but didn't do anything with it. Then I installed 9.3 on hdb. Everything worked fine. Played a game with sound, listened to some OGGs, checked out a movie (after installing MPlayer and the codecs).... worked fine. Then I shut down booted XP, and set it up. oddly, it didn't find the sound card (an SiS7012). Tinkered with the drivers in XP, and installed the latest SiS driver and the AC'97 codecs. All working there, so I booted back to Linux and that's when my troubles started. I can't imagine that installing sound drivers in XP (which is installed on it's own HD) would affect a Linux install... but I'm running out of ideas. I know sound worked perfectly on the initial 9.3 install. So... not making much progress here.... any other suggestions?