@ dale: Cheers for the link, I tried all the possibilities from there but still no go.

hmm... just noticed this on startup:

Code:
May 11 15:56:39 xxx-laptop kernel: [    5.639934] ALSA /build/buildd/linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-2.6.24/debian/build/build-generic/sound/alsa-driver/pci/emu10k1/emu10k1_main.c:765: emu1010: Loading Audio Dock Firmware file failed, reg=0x0