Thanks again. The sound-card has not been stolen (phew..

) because it seems to work well under Windoze. And here are the results as requested:
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[margit@localhost ~]$ grep -i audio /etc/group
audio:x:81:margit
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[margit@localhost ~]$ id
uid=501(margit) gid=501(margit) groups=81(audio),82(video),501(margit)
and
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[root@localhost ~]# lsmod |grep -i snd
snd_pcm_oss 43072 0
snd_mixer_oss 16608 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_intel8x0 33020 0
snd_ac97_codec 95268 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_ac97_bus 2400 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm 76868 3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer 22884 1 snd_pcm
snd 52708 6 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 9824 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 10152 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
BTW, in MCC-> Hardware-> "Look...configure hardware" -> "82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller" -> "Run config tool" this message appears:
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Error: the "snd_hda_intel" driver for your soundcard is unlisted
. Don't know what's happened there, I'm sure that the driver
was present at one time. Does this help in any way?