mandrake cooker 10.2 - sound service hangs on boot

[aftertaf]

HI, i have a problem with my mdk 10.2

i don't know what i've done, apart from going unstable and putting latest updates, and it workd when i recompiled but has since stopped working, but when i boot, the 'sound' service hangs and stops linux from booting.
When i go interactive and don't start it, it boots.
and when i go to services in COntrol ceenter to start manually, it crashes the control center...

what can i do to find out why? and more importantly, to make it work again.
MDK10.2 cooker
kernel 2.6.10 (and sound worked until recently.)
thx.
David

Aftertaf
__________________
squiggle squiggle

 

[aftertaf]

i have always used Alsa.

root@localhost /home/david # lsmod
Module Size Used by
floppy 55248 0
ppp_synctty 8064 1
n_hdlc 8324 1
ppp_async 9152 0
ppp_generic 25876 6 ppp_synctty,ppp_async
slhc 6592 1 ppp_generic
crc-ccitt 1728 1 ppp_async
agpgart 27944 0
md5 3712 1
ipv6 241988 8
snd-seq-midi 6688 0
snd-seq-oss 32192 0
snd-seq-midi-event 6464 2 snd-seq-midi,snd-seq-oss
snd-seq 49744 5 snd-seq-midi,snd-seq-oss,snd-seq-midi-event
snd-pcm-oss 49704 0
snd-mixer-oss 17600 1 snd-pcm-oss
snd-ens1371 20516 1
snd-rawmidi 20516 2 snd-seq-midi,snd-ens1371
snd-seq-device 6408 4 snd-seq-midi,snd-seq-oss,snd-seq,snd-rawmidi
snd-pcm 85448 2 snd-pcm-oss,snd-ens1371
snd-timer 21828 2 snd-seq,snd-pcm
snd-page-alloc 7368 1 snd-pcm
snd-ac97-codec 69200 1 snd-ens1371
gameport 3456 1 snd-ens1371
snd 47012 16 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq,snd-pcm-oss,snd-mixer-oss,snd-ens1371,snd-rawmidi,snd-seq-device,snd-pcm,snd-timer,snd-ac97-codec
soundcore 7520 1 snd
af_packet 16968 0
ide-cd 37088 0
cdrom 37532 1 ide-cd
ohci1394 31876 0
ieee1394 294008 1 ohci1394
loop 12936 0
nls_utf8 1600 1
nls_iso8859-1 3776 2
nls_cp437 5376 3
supermount 35156 1
nvidia 3468956 12
tsdev 5888 0
joydev 8000 0
evdev 7744 0
usbmouse 4288 0
usbhid 35072 0
uhci-hcd 29008 0
usbcore 105316 5 usbmouse,usbhid,uhci-hcd
genrtc 8244 0

Aftertaf
__________________
squiggle squiggle

 

[aftertaf]

new info:
when i start service manually and it crashes ctl center, i end up having sound all the same...
so i can have sound it i deactivate sound service on boot, the run it manually, crashing ctl center while doing so.
any clues ??
cheers,
david

Aftertaf
__________________
squiggle squiggle