Sound volume adjust issues

[xyepblra]

Ubuntu 8.10 has proven to be the version that suits my HP Pavilion dv3106tx the best so far (I'm still going to try the 9.04 this week-end though), but one of the issues I can't solve still remains.
When I adjust volume with the sliding scale on top of the keyboard, an on-screen display showing the current volume appears.

First problem is, this on-screen display disappears due to some unknown reasons on some session's start-up and comes back only when the laptop was turned off by running out of battery power, which makes me think of session settings.
Second problem is, the on-screen display has only 4 positions (0%, 33%, 67% and 100%), limiting the adjustment possibilities to those 4 values only. 67% is slightly louder than mute and 100% is a little bit louder than I would normally need working on a laptop, that's why I'd like to make that volume adjustment smoother. Ubuntu 8.10 has been the first distro to support both remote control and sliding scale on the keyboard right since the installation from scratch, and sound volume has more than just 4 positions until some update gets installed, after which the on-screen display changes it's look from what it is upon the 8.10 has been installed to what it is on the picture i'm posting here.

[xyepblra]

Alright, now since I have upgraded my version to 9.04, everything's fine except the second problem:

Second problem is, the on-screen display has only 4 positions (0%, 33%, 67% and 100%), limiting the adjustment possibilities to those 4 values only. 67% is slightly louder than mute and 100% is a little bit louder than I would normally need working on a laptop, that's why I'd like to make that volume adjustment smoother.

Any ideas?